Links for 3-4-2008

Janet Stemwedel has a lengthy, informative, interesting post on that eternally troublesome question: When in my graduate career should I have a baby? After reading it, I am put in mind of that New Yorker cartoon with the guy on the phone, looking at a datebook on his desk, saying "How about never? Is never good for you?"

The Chronicle news blog reports on a former professor at U. of Georgia with a "long record of sexual harassment." What's a university to do when one of its professors is found to be in violation of the sexual harassment policy? Why, pass him along to another university, of course. Where he will be rewarded by his profession by being made editor of a journal. Makes me wanna puke on somebody's shoes.

To take the bad taste out of your mouth after that last one, go take a look at the Women's Bioethics Project. Regular readers of Adventures in Ethics and Science may already be familiar with this site.

The Women's Bioethics Project is the leading nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy think tank dedicated to ensuring that women's voices, health concerns, and unique life experiences strongly influence ethical issues in health care and biotechnology.

The WBP was founded by Kathryn Hinsch, a former senior executive at Microsoft. Ms. Hinsch promises that the WBP will "remember the bioethics issues like poverty, access to health care, and looking after children and the elderly that truly affect women's lives." WBP has a blog, with several different contributing authors. You'll like this post on a pharma birth control ad parody, and this thoughtful post on sex-segregated schooling.

Here's a website on Title IX and science/engineering. If you want to use any of the materials on the site, and would like some assistance in adapting them for use at your institution, contact Ruta Sevo. ruta AT momox DOT org. While you're over at the site, check out the link for Molly and Dollop. Take a look at Three Times A Week and read about the Every-Ready Man. Here's an excerpt:

Unlike RU-486 or Plan B, viagra is freely available. Erections are an important national resource.

Lastly, I found this via Arts & Letters Daily: a New Yorker piece on our brains and math.

In Dehaene's view, we are all born with an evolutionarily ancient mathematical instinct.

Intriguing!