By The Way...

Thursday, February 8, 2007
11:47:00 AM EST
Hearing Black Wave -- The Shins
Let's all be honest and admit that astronaut planning to kidnap and murder her love rival story wouldn't be half as interesting if it weren't for the fact the woman wore a diaper as she drove from Texas to Florida on her mission of... well whatever that mission of hers was. But you should know that the whole diaper thing actually makes perfect sense if you're a NASA astronaut:

Astronauts have worn disposable diapers, known as Maximum Absorption Garments, or MAGs, for some 40 years now.

The MAG was developed by NASA during the Gemini program in the early- to mid-1960s, according to Teresa Sindelar, a camp programs manager in the education department at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, which has several MAGs on display. The reason was eminently practical: “You can’t just drop your space pants and go,” Sindelar says. "Early on, when it was only men, they would have bags that they would keep inside their spacesuit." Then came the diapers.

By the time Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon in July 1969, astronauts were using diapers anytime they were in a spacesuit. Today’s flight crews sometimes spacewalk for seven or more hours at a stretch and cannot return to the shuttle for bathroom breaks.

See? It was part of her training. Makes perfect sense now. Also, "MAG" is so much a better name than "adult diaper." I don't want to ever have to wear an adult diaper. But wearing a MAG? Just like Neil Armstrong? I could live with that.


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This entry has 7 comments: (Add your own)

• #7 Comment from pattboy92 
  2/24/07 3:36 PM | Permalink

  John,
  
  With all due respect, the diaper thing makes PERFECT sense if you're walking in space.  But when you're making a 900-mile road trip, during which you'd HAVE to stop for gasoline at least once where bathrooms would be available, it's JUST as crazy as it sounds.
  
  And when you consider she had her own family and was apparently on some mission to terrorize -- or worse -- a colleauge over another man, then the story, if true, is MORE crazy than it sounds!
  
  Just my two cents.
  
  Patrick
  
• #6 Comment from lurkynat 
  2/8/07 4:47 PM | Permalink

  Dear John,
  ummmm... wiht all due respect John, youare the expert really .
  It's jsut that ...EWWWWW!:)
  hugs,nat
• #5 Comment from princesssaurora 
  2/8/07 3:09 PM | Permalink

  Yeah, it does make sense... doesn't change her psychosis though!  lol
  
  be well,
  Dawn
  
• #4 Comment from dpoem 
  2/8/07 2:12 PM | Permalink

  Had she just waited one more week, it would have been romantic as opposed to just bat-s**t crazy.  
  
  -Dan
  http://journals.aol.com/dpoem/TheWisdomofaDistractedMind/
  
• #3 Comment from wenndodge 
  2/8/07 1:58 PM | Permalink

  but she still had to stop to refuel her car,unless it was rocket fuel!

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