thusspakezuska
Posts by this author
March 20, 2009
NSF ADVANCE Workshop For Women Transitioning to Academic Careers
The University of Washington's ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change received an award from the National Science Foundation ADVANCE program to hold professional development workshops for Ph.D.-level women in industry, research…
March 15, 2009
This past Friday morning, as per my usual routine, I sat down to read the Philadelphia Inquirer with my coffee and breakfast. And I came across an article that nearly made me vomit back all that delicious Toy Cow Farms blueberry yoghurt I had just spooned down. I refer, of course, to the piece on…
March 14, 2009
Pi Day has come and gone. Sciencebloggers have posted their pie recipes and pictures - including, of course, my fabulous Bird Pie - and now it is time to vote for your favorite. You may also enjoy checking out Janet's Pi Day pie roundup. That's one helluva lotta pies she baked! Though none of…
March 12, 2009
Some of us at Scienceblogs have been baking pies and posting pictures and recipes in anticipation of Pi Day (3.14) and in the hopes of winning the Pi Day contest. As I have previously mentioned, I am no pie baker. But why should that stop me from entering the contest? You're right, it shouldn't…
March 11, 2009
The Global Marathon For, By, and About Women in Engineering is going on right now! for the next 24 hours. It's part of the Eweek celebration, which was last month, which I totally missed because I was off in a haze not blogging at the time. As I write this, Maria Thompson of Motorola is doing a…
March 10, 2009
I found Light-skinned-ed Girl via Acmegirl's blogroll. Lots of good stuff about the process of writing, quotes from writers, and the experience of being biracial. I like her idea about the Oscars for books. That is an awards ceremony I would definitely watch!
Black on Campus has a post about…
March 10, 2009
Guest post from Female Seaside Scientist, for the Diversity in Science Carnival!
Dr. Cindy Lee Van Dover is a Professor of Marine Biology, Director of the Duke University Marine Lab, and Chair of the Marine Science and Conservation Division at the Nicholas School. Her research combines…
March 10, 2009
Just in time for Women's History Month and the second edition of the Diversity in Science Carnival, the Association for Computing Machinery has announced that the 2008 Turing Award goes to Barbara Liskov! Here's all the info from the press release:
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery,…
March 10, 2009
If you've been reading the blogs of some of my Sciblings, you know there is this Pi(e) Day contest going on, till March 14. (Get it?) You are supposed to bake a pie, then post a picture and the recipe. Janet in particular has been posting some very tasty looking pies, and her violet custard pie…
March 9, 2009
For the second time in a week (see here and here) I've blogged about something from the Philadelphia Inquirer. You may or may not know that the Inquirer recently went into bankruptcy proceedings. I don't know what I would do without the Inquirer to read everyday. Blogging is great but it simply…
March 9, 2009
Ironing is women's work. And women's work, we know, has nothing to do with engineering or technology. Irons are not technology; they are domestic appliances.
Collect a bunch of them, though, and they start looking like technological art objects. Then you can write a book about them.
Which is…
March 7, 2009
The first Diversity in Science carnival, created and hosted by DNLee of Urban Science Adventures as a Black History Month Celebration, was a great success. Thanks to everyone who contributed!
Now it's time for our second round, which will be hosted right here at Thus Spake Zuska. Naturally,…
March 5, 2009
When you walk or drive by a shuttered factory or other rusting, decaying industrial hulk in your city, do you notice it? If you do, do you just think, "urban blight"? Or do you think "there goes some history in need of documenting?" If the latter, you might be an urban explorer in the making.…
March 1, 2009
Reader JC left a comment on a recent post about sexual harassment that led me to a Feminist Law Professor post on a sexual harassment lawsuit against Brigham & Women's Hospital. It is a post well worth reading, if you have ever wondered why more women don't sue over sexual harassment, or why…
March 1, 2009
Well, February has come and gone, Black History Month is over for another year, and we've had the first round of the Diversity in Science carnival. I am sure some of you who blog may have thought about contributing to this carnival but didn't for a variety of reasons. Maybe, like me, you had…
February 28, 2009
Mr. Zuska and I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show today. It's always wonderful to enter the show on a dull winter day and be struck with the glory of a giant convention center in full bloom. The show officially opens tomorrow, but today was the preview for Pennsylvania Horticultural Society…
February 27, 2009
A week or so ago I went for a walk at the Morris Arboretum on a day with lovely weather, when it had warmed up just enough to make a winter walk delightful. I came around a bend in the path and encountered a cloudy vision of yellow - a witch hazel in full bloom.
It's not the best picture, but…
February 26, 2009
To avoid a paper review I should be working on...
Via Sciencewoman at Sciencewomen, the BBC Book Meme. Using the second list she has posted, supposedly the actual BBC book list. The ones I've read are in bold. I didn't bother starring the ones I plan to read, since my "plan to read" bookshelf is…
February 26, 2009
Over at Sciencewomen, Alice has a post up on the topic of colleagiality that includes the story of a casual encounter with a very nice outcome:
...my seatmate was Jamie Comstock, provost of Butler University. She saw I was editing a student's paper, and asked "Faculty or student?" That was nice…
February 26, 2009
SCENE:
At the YMCA: they used to have perfectly serviceable water fountains in the room with the treadmills, elliptical trainers, and weight machines. They ripped them out and replaced them with water coolers that require the use of little conical paper cups - which, of course, must be used once…
February 24, 2009
It's up and available for reading, people! Go over and enjoy at Urban Science Adventures!
This carnival celebrates the people of science and engineering - those who innovate, invent, research, teach, and reach out. This Blog Carnival tells the stories of achievement and perseverance. Why is such…
February 24, 2009
It's certainly a tragedy when anyone takes their own life. I feel very sorry for the surviving family members and colleagues affected by the suicides of two U. of Iowa professors accused of sexual harassment who took their own lives last year.
And yet. I have little patience with this Chronicle…
February 24, 2009
As a graduate student, I observed the nascent field of functional magnetic resonance imaging and thought to myself with some amusement "modern phrenology! Now with big, fancy, expensive equipment!" Count me among those who have never been terribly impressed with fMRI, and certainly not with its…
February 23, 2009
The Feb. 20th Chronicle Review has a set of articles about grad school life. The statistics on how grad school cultivates and enhances depression and mental illness are, well, depressing. But if you are or ever have been a graduate student, you knew that already.
Studies have found that graduate…
February 22, 2009
Scientists who are still at the bench may not ever think much about administration or, if they do, their thoughts may be markedly negative. And yet administrative work can be both important and personally rewarding and fulfilling, just as much so as bench research. I know, that sounds like…
February 22, 2009
Very often in my life I find myself in the situation my dad used to describe as "a day late and a dollar short". So it is once more. This past month I have allowed preoccupation with a number of issues, some familiar some not, to get squarely in the way of blogging. And out of the past 22 days,…
February 20, 2009
I love Ursula K. le Guin's the Earthsea series, and recently finished reading the final novel, The Other Wind. Those who are familiar with the Earthsea books will know that among other topics, le Guin explores traditional gender roles, their change, and men's disparagement of women's power.…
February 20, 2009
Spawned by Alice over at Sciencewomen, who dragged it here from Facebook. Because I needed something silly and lighthearted to think about.
1. YOUR REAL NAME:
Suzanne Franks
2.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME:(mother and fathers middle names)
Ann George
3.NASCAR NAME:(first name of your mother's dad,…
February 16, 2009
I found out about both of these courtesy of the Chronicle Review Note Bene/New Books in Print feature. Both look extremely interesting.
First, Revisiting Race in a Genomic World, from Rutgers University Press.
With the completion of the sequencing of the human genome in 2001, the debate over…
February 16, 2009
Whenever I go back home to see my mom, I usually spend some time visiting with her cousin D., who lives in the house across the street from my mother's house. D. has spent a good many years taking care of his elderly mother, my great-aunt. I have known D. all my life. As a child growing up, he…