Nichelle Nichols

[nanila]

From actual astronauts last week, we go to Fictional Astronauts this week. Leading the way with her seminal role as communications officer Lieutenant Uhura in the original TV series Star Trek is actress and singer Nichelle Nichols. After the Star Trek series was cancelled, Nichols volunteered at NASA to help recruit minority and female personnel. One of her recruits was Charles Bolden, who was an astronaut...and is now Administrator of NASA.



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Vienna Teng

[amai_kaminari]

Summarized from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Teng:

Vienna Teng is the stage name of Taiwanese-American pianist and singer-songwriter Cynthia Yih Shih.

Although Ms. Shih began her career as a software engineer, she decided to pursue her music career full time after she was signed by Virt Records in 2002. From 2002 to 2010, Vienna Teng released 4 studio albums.

Among her fans is late-night television host David Letterman, who immediately booked her to perform on his show. He praised her debut album:

"I've heard the entire CD, and there's not a dud on this."

In 2010, Vienna Teng was named a Next Century Citizen by Future-ish.



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