Are There Any Vegans Here?

Of course, I answered yes and embarrassed myself. I thought they meant "Vegan" as in "from the system of planets around Vega", Vega being a star in the constellation of Lyra and many parasangs from here. The very odd interplay went something like this: "Are there any Vegans here?" Raising my arm and waving it, "Here..." "Ah. You will want the Vegan menu..." Perplexed now, I wondered, "Will they actually be serving Dulcet Ambrosnag on Schlumpf?" There's more of this, but I shall spare you. It turned out that Vegan means being picky about your food, not having any reference at all to the star Vega, all of which makes me wonder what shall we do when relations between Earth ( system of Sol) and good old Vega are finally established? What shall we call Vegans, since the name "Vegan" has already been co-opted for culinary purposes? Perhaps we shall call them Strict Vegetarians from the system Vegetaria...it makes as much sense as anything else we do around here. WHICH brings me to the point. I have been reading about NASA, specifically about the outside taskforce looking into astronaut mental health. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6920282.stm "Investigations into both of Nasa's fatal shuttle accidents determined that workers were often discouraged, even ostracised, for raising safety concerns or voicing objections. That led managers to ignore evidence of fuel leaks on the shuttle booster rockets before Challenger was lost in 1986, and to gloss over warnings that a debris impact suspected during shuttle Columbia's climb to orbit in 2003 could have critically damaged the ship's heat shield. " "...two cases where panel members were told of astronauts boarding spaceships and training jets for flight, despite concerns by doctors and other crewmembers that he or she was drunk. "Instances were described where major crew medical or behaviour problems were identified to astronaut leadership, and the medical advice was disregarded," read the report, which was released on Friday. "The individuals were still permitted to fly... "This disregard was described as 'demoralising' to the point where they said they are less likely to report concerns of performance decrement." " "Addressing the alleged problem of widespread alcohol abuse among astronauts would take more time, said deputy administrator Shana Dale. " It all sounds rather like the Space program was based in some Siberian city where people had nothing better to do for six months of the year than drink vodka and drive to Irkutsk wearing diapers. We still have the ability to change. I think that is the hallmark of a good people. Our pretensions that we are better than other people is manifestly nonsense. We may be the most powerful country in the history of the world, but we stumble around like a drunken behemoth, upchucking our indigestion upon the rest of the world. BUT, we still have the wisdom to see our mistakes and we have the resolve to rectify them. I think that's the best anyone can do.