• protist
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    8 days ago

    May’s actual thesis was called “A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud.”

    • modifier@lemmy.ca
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      8 days ago

      Which, honestly, sounds like the name of a prog metal album so he isn’t straying far

    • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works
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      8 days ago

      My professor mentioned it in the observational astronomy class I took in college. For anyone wondering, zodiacal dust is the stuff left over from the protoplanetary disc that didn’t become a planet. Any observations made along the plane of the solar system is looking through that dust and astronomers need to account for it in various ways.

  • Instigate@aussie.zone
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    8 days ago

    Probed on whether Queen would be able to win a BRIT gong in 2021, he was reported to have responded:

    “We would be forced to have people of different colours and different sexes and we would have to have a trans [person]. You know life doesn’t have to be like that. We can be separate and different.”

    Apparently he was ‘ambushed’ and ‘stitched up’ and his words were ‘subtly twisted’ but he never stated what his original words were, if they were different from the quote. I’m not usually a fan of people who use terms like “a trans” or who lament “cancel culture” because gendered categories are removed from awards ceremonies.

    https://www.thepinknews.com/2021/11/28/queen-brian-may-brit-awards-twisted-trans/

    • fossilesqueOPM
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      8 days ago

      Considering that he’s been in bands with several prolific gay men, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt here. People say dumb stuff all the time and the online brain rot can be real, but I don’t think this one isn’t an ally.

      • flora_explora@beehaw.org
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        7 days ago

        A post that incidentally showed up just above this one in my feed showing that gay people are not necessarily allies to all queer people:

        https://sopuli.xyz/post/13852549

        And just because someone is friends with a gay person is even less reason to suggest they are necessarily queer-inclusive.

        • fossilesqueOPM
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          7 days ago

          I’m aware of that, but I’m pretty sure this kind of behaviour would leave a long trail than an off handed comment to a journalist looking for a hit piece. The guy has had a long life, and has had many opportunities to show that kind of bigotry earlier, especially considering that he has been involved in LGBTQ communities. He also apologised and clarified which this article doesn’t cover. If it was more than a single event, then I’d totally see this differently, but it’s not. People are allowed to be imperfect and make mistakes.

          https://loudwire.com/queen-brian-may-transgender-comments-apology-brit-awards-gender-neutral/

          I understand why people are hypervigilant but it’s not always useful, especially when you attack people that are probably trying to help. There are better targets, and bigger problems than an old man that has done a lot for acceptance.

      • Instigate@aussie.zone
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        8 days ago

        Fair call mate, he might be your ally but sadly he’s not mine. I’m not sure if you’re LGBTQIA+, but if you’ve spent time in the community you’ll know that not even all of those who identify as queer or non-cis support one another. To the best of my knowledge May doesn’t openly identify as queer himself, and thinking that he’s an ally just because he’s been friends with gay and/or bi men isn’t necessarily the best indicator that he’s an ally to all peoples. Personally, I feel like that argument is pretty similar to “I can’t be racist because I have a ____ friend”.

        • fossilesqueOPM
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          8 days ago

          Nah, he’s had a long history and won awards for allyship, so I’m going to go ahead and bet on that rather than offhand tablod comments that are attacking a 75 year old man that likely isn’t internet savvy.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    He’s also a proponent of bi-orbital propulsion machines as a mechanichal conveyance process for said generous posteriored cosmological constants.