This is standard editorial practice. “Black” in the US refers to an identifiable ethnic group with shared culture and experience. “White” is just a claim of supremacy that does not track to any specific ethnicity, skin tone, etc. The ethnicities that have counted as white have constantly shifted since the idea of…

Meanwhile, the struggle to rename the telescope after Harriet Tubman continues.

Why are they naming a a telescope after a government bureaucrat, anyway? Ah. It was named by another government bureaucrat. Well, there we are.

I agree on previous comments about not naming things after people...it’s just problematic. I get that he was a director at NASA during the space race but is that enough to earn a distinction of getting a $8.8 billion dollar space telescope named after you? I can see it being named after a scientist but an…

If it’s to be named after a prominent female astronomer, why not name it after Caroline Herschel? She discovered several comets and aided her brother William Herschel in his research, which probably means that he would have got a lot less done without her.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It’s become pretty obvious that we need to stop naming things after people. Buildings, monuments, natural features, places...space telescopes, whatever, need to stop being named after people because EVERYONE has said (or will) say or done (or will do) something problematic.…

Name the damn thing after Vera Rubin. Astronomer who didn’t share the Nobel Price she richly deserved for discovering dark matter, because woman astronomers didn’t count.

1. just because you don’t care doesn’t mean nobody cares
2. It’s much better to wait longer than to risk malfunctions. Since the telescope will sit at the Lagrange point between earth and moon, there will be no possibility of repair if anything goes wrong for the foreseeable future. Delaying the start to later is…

“Because he wasn’t also a social justice trailblazer.”

And if you want to rename it, wait until the damn thing is successfully launched and operating.

It's sort of crazy how, when and why homophobia appears. You can see it clearly in these comments, its pathetic and sad.

I’m going for hyperbole here, but imagine if the telescope was named Adolf Hitler. Or let’s not get THAT extreme, what if it was named Bill Cosby or whatever? Better? You don’t think people would want its name changed then?

Sick and tired of white using Black people for their agenda.

Just wait until she finds out about von Braun.

“No, they didn’t find any evidence that he was actively involved beyond just enforcing broader policies coming from the Presidents he worked for.”

Ah, so he was only following orders?

takes place now..?

If the Viking era was lousy with dragons to the point that random schmos had them as pets, shouldn’t there be an enormous historical record about them? Do dragon bones dissolve in the rain, or transcend into some dragon ghost realm upon death? 

i just have this bookmarked and it helps a lot:

I like Evangeline Lily and I get that preparation goes into roles, but that quote is an all-timer for Actor Bullshit(TM).

Morning Spoilers is my favorite Content in i09, Gizmodo or any of the affiliated sites. That’s why they’re set up so I can’t ever find past postings. To mess with me.  Love that I’m so important that this multi thousand dollar company devotes its resources to making my life slightly more difficult.