More Tompkins

Hi everyone,

So Phil Tompkins emailed me awhile ago about putting his response in the blog and he actually had a question for the class as a whole:

Dear Gretchen,

Do put it on the blog. Let me give you some more information you might want to add to it. Despite the subtitle of my book, NASA invited me to speak and post a paper on a website last month. I spoke at the Ronald Reagan Building. I usually get a bit nervous speaking to an audience of rocket scientists but it went well. They took notes, stopped me with questions, nodded and otherwise expessed their excitement about how von Braun did organizational communication. They were intriguied by the practice of Penetration and peppered me with questions about it. I had the floor for about an hour. They took a break after my presentation but I stayed there because some wanted to continue with questions and comments. There was a former astronaut in the audience, Thomas Jones, who introduced himself and complimented me. He was there promoting his book, THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO NASA. We inscribed copies of our books and exchanged them. Since then I learned that he will be in Denver this winter to promote another book, so we will get together for a drink or two.

I read the first chapter of his book immediately and found out how they go to the bathroom in space (men and women). I'll give you that information for you blog if you insist.

After the morning session was over we had to walk to another room for lunch. A NASA official took me by the arm and walked me the long way to lunch. He told me about some terrible incidents in NASA that violate the best practices we had during Apollo. He/she wants to be on "Background," an unidentified source. If I reveal these incidents I might get indicted for not revealing my source. Here is a question for the class to answer: Should I reveal the information and take the risk of going to jail? I'd like to know your collective and individual answers.

Warmly, Phil

Wht do you think?