thusspakezuska

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June 28, 2007
Warning: this is an intensely personal piece and I'm not sure why I'm posting it at all, except that some people I know have been encouraging me for awhile to write more about my illness or disability in general. So blame them. (By the way, you aren't supposed to read this and feel pity for me…
June 27, 2007
I recently got a notice from the AWIS - Philadelphia chapter about a film in production here in Philadelphia, called "Future Weather". The filmmakers, independent and mostly women, wrote to AWIS as follows: We...are dedicated to bringing the stories of real women and girls to the big (and small…
June 27, 2007
Rice University is hosting a workshop called Negotiating the Ideal Faculty Position. From an email announcement about the workshop: At Rice University we are strongly committed to increasing the diversity of science and engineering faculty and students. As part of this goal we are sponsoring…
June 25, 2007
It seems all the Science Bloggers are doing it... ...submitting their blogs for rating at this site. I am so proud to say TSZ came up with an R rating. Mingle2 - Online Dating Bora has an NC-17 but he's the only one. He's the only one in lots of ways, though, you know?? (I mean that in a…
June 24, 2007
One year has passed since Denice Denton's untimely death. It's a real understatement to say that Denice was a trailblazer. Here's Jean Bahr's memory of Denice: I met Denice at a reception at the Women's Studies Center in the fall of 1987 when we were both beginning our tenure track appointments at…
June 22, 2007
I'm going to cheat a little on this week's Friday Bookshelf. Women in Science: Meeting Career Challenges is a book I have reviewed in the past for NWSA Journal (vol. 12, no. 3, 2000). So I'm going to quote my own review. My review was originally combined with a review of a film about women…
June 22, 2007
The New York Times reports today on a study published today in two papers in Science (Science 22 June 2007: Vol. 316. no. 5832, p. 1717) and Intelligence: "Research Finds Firstborns Gain The Higher I.Q." The study could settle more than half a century of scientific debate! Frank J. Sulloway,…
June 21, 2007
I can't tell if this Chronicle piece is behind a paywall or not, because I already logged into my account today so everything opens up in my browser right away...I hope it's not, because I'd love for you to see the picture of Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College, on a skateboard. It's how…
June 21, 2007
The Chronicle of Higher Education had a great piece this week about A. Van Jordan and his new book of poetry, Quantum Lyrics. Unfortunately, I think you need a subscription to read the article online. It's the June 22, 2007 issue, p. A48, if you have access to the print version. "Physicists talk…
June 21, 2007
So, Bora tagged me today with the Eight Random Facts meme. And since it's Bora, I will respond. Here are the rules: 1. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves. 2. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts. 3. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them…
June 20, 2007
I wasn't able to attend the WEPAN national conference this year, and I really missed going. So I was glad that Carol Muller of MentorNet wrote to the WEPAN listserv today with a mini-conference report/follow-up. She covered three topics: the plenary session tribute to Denice Denton; follow-up to…
June 20, 2007
Thanks to Scienceblogs, I have access to Google Analytics for my blog, which means I can obsess over a wealth of information and statistics. It's amazing what Google knows about my blog. Let's hope Google always and only decides to use its power for good... Anyhoo, one of the things I can look at…
June 19, 2007
When I lived in North Carolina, I got to know a woman who worked in one of the Research Triangle labs. She had a baby girl, and I occasionally baby-sat for her. She had named her daughter Melina, which I thought was an incredibly beautiful name for a little girl. I remarked upon this one time,…
June 19, 2007
For those who may be interested, I have written an addendum to the infamous "I Support Gender Equity in Principle..." post. The very ugly comments thread on that post is now closed. You'll notice you can't post comments here either. I'm doing this for my mental health. It's either this, or all…
June 15, 2007
It's Friday and though I have no heart for blogging, I promised you last week a new feature called "Friday Bookshelf". I feel some obligation to deliver, especially since I can't seem to get the damn Joy of Science discussion posts finished and now I'm sure they'll take even longer with this new…
June 14, 2007
I have been thinking all week about the topic for the next scientiae-carnival, "Transitions" and what I might write about. I had thought I would write something about the transition from health to disability, from employed to jobless, from known career to uncertainty about just what to do with my…
June 13, 2007
You may recall that Senator Sam Brownback, erstwhile Presidential candidate, recently wrote a NYTimes op-ed expounding on his raising of the arm during a presidential debate in response to the now-infamous "who doesn't believe in evolution" question. I'm grateful to Page 3.14 for alerting me to…
June 13, 2007
So, last week I posted the Week 4 Joy of Science reading summaries and since then...nothing. No JoS discussion posts. What's up with that? I'd say procrastination, but then you'd ask, "why?" I seem to be having an extraordinarily difficult time writing up my discussion of these readings; I…
June 11, 2007
UPDATE: I have appended some text to this post at the end. I have closed the comments on this post because they have become so unpleasant all around and I don't think further dialogue here is serving any positive purpose. If you disagree with me, I'm sorry. I'm also sorry I didn't do this a lot…
June 8, 2007
Many of my Sciblings have a regular Friday feature of one sort or another. For example, Dr. Free-Ride's got her Friday sprog-blogging, and there's Orac's Friday Dose of Woo over at Respectful Insolence. Karmen has Friday Fractals at Chaotic Utopia, which are particularly fun. So I'm thinking…
June 6, 2007
N.B.: Nature Physics (3, 363; 2007) has an editorial on a recent American Physical Society workshop, Gender Equity: Strengthening the Physics Enterprise in Universities and National Laboratories. This post is based** on that editorial, which is behind a paywall; you can read part of it here. So…
June 6, 2007
Welcome to Week 4 of our course on "Feminist Theory and the Joy of Science". This post will be a presentation of the summaries for each of this week's assigned readings. If you were not able to do the readings or couldn't get access to the books, I hope this post will give you a good flavor of what…
June 5, 2007
Yeah, so I promised you the reading summaries for today, and they aren't ready. What's my excuse? I haven't had that many migraines in the past week, only two. Oh, I've been playing in the garden, and I went on a garden tour on Saturday instead of working on the readings all day, and blah blah…
June 3, 2007
Every week in the Currents section of the Sunday paper, the Philadelphia Inquirer runs a feature called "Influences: What Shapes The Minds That Make The News". It's basically a "twenty questions" type of thing, with the same questions each week, and each week some interesting local bigwig answers…
June 3, 2007
I sat down on my front porch this afternoon with a cup of coffee and the Philadelphia Inquirer and I was shocked beyond belief to find Jonathan Storm , the Inquirer's tv critic, offering up a critique of not just one new fall tv show, but the entire new fall lineup of all three networks, based on…
June 1, 2007
Yes, it's Scientiae Carnival time again! FemaleCSGradStudent has asked us "How We Are Hungry", and has collated and contextualized a most interesting set of responses. Maybe you want to go visit Kat on a Wire and leave her a comment. Online communities can be very, very important for those of…
May 31, 2007
The next Scientiae Carnival topic is How We Are Hungry. scientiae-carnival We spent the Memorial Day holiday weekend at Mom's house, so hunger and food are topics much on my mind. Sunday we had a cookout at my brother's house; the weather was perfect, and Brother Zuska was in his element at the…
May 31, 2007
So, the Chronicle of Higher Education announced a new blog On Hiring. An item of interest: Don't Just Search, Recruit. There's a link in the post to a Heads Up column on the topic, which I read in this week's print version. It's a great article, with lots of good tips, most of which are…
May 31, 2007
From the Chronicle daily update: The White House announced on Tuesday the winners of the 2005 National Medals of Science, the nation's highest scientific honor. The prizes recognize achievement in the physical, biological, mathematical, social, behavioral, and engineering sciences. I'm shocked,…
May 31, 2007
From the Chronicle of Higher Education daily update, I learned about a forthcoming book, Mothers on the Fast Track: How a New Generation Can Balance Family and Careers: In the new book, Ms. Mason and Ms. Ekman say it is common for women who start off in fast-track jobs in law, medicine, academe,…