thusspakezuska | March 9, 2010I failed to produce this post in time for DNLee's Diversity in Science carnival - Black History Month: Broadening STEM Participation at Every Level. That's mostly because I had a bunch of personal stuff going on in the past couple weeks that just wouldn't leave me alone. I think I'll be back to more regular blogging now.
You might have already read my brief post on Hercules, the chef enslaved by George Washington who eventually escaped to freedom. In it I noted "It was no small thing to be a chef under such circumstances, and the degree of technical skill required was surely astonishing…
thusspakezuska | February 23, 2010How did you celebrate George Washington's birthday this year? You didn't do anything? Well, it's not too late. Pour yourself a nice hot cup of coffee or tea, and sit down to read a pair of fascinating articles published this past Sunday and Monday in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Hercules: Master of cuisine, slave of Washington
A birthday shock from Washington's chef
If you don't already know - and why would you, this stuff isn't in our history books - Hercules was a great chef, and one of nine slaves Washington kept at the first White House in Philadelphia. The history of slavery in the…
thusspakezuska | February 15, 2010Don't you just love food palaces? Round these parts in Philly, we have several new Wegmans stores to choose from, and of course Whole Foods. A new Whole Foods opened not far from where I live that includes a little bar - you can have a beer or glass of wine and a little something to eat if you find the experience of shopping for your whole foods wholly exhausting and need to partake of serious refreshment. The big chain grocery stores have even stepped up their games to stay in competition. In downtown Philly, there is Di Bruno Brothers, a gourmand's shopping paradise, not to mention…
thusspakezuska | February 15, 2010Philagrafika 2010 is happening now, all over Philadelphia.
Involving more than 300 artists at more than 80 venues throughout the city, Philagrafika 2010 will be one of the largest art events in the United States and the world's most important print-related exposition. Prominent museums and cultural institutions across Philadelphia are participating in Philagrafika 2010, offering regional, national and international audiences the opportunity to see contemporary art that references printmaking in dynamic, unexpected ways and to experience the rich cultural life of the city in the process.
If…
thusspakezuska | February 15, 2010Tomorrow morning Rebecca Skloot will be on WHYY's Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane. She will, of course, be talking about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. You can tune in and listen on the web here. Radio Times starts at 10 a.m. EST but Skloot is scheduled for the second hour of the show, at 11 a.m.
She will also be at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia tomorrow evening and I am planning to go.
Of course, it is supposed to start snowing again this evening and throughout tomorrow. Oh, I know, not anything like what we've had in the past week. Just a few inches. Just enough to…
thusspakezuska | February 10, 2010Arborvitae. It is snowing. Again. Snow, then freezing rain, then more snow with a vengeance that promises to keep on all day through to midnight. This is on top of the batch we got last Saturday. Philadelphia got 28.5 inches though round these parts it seems we "only" got about 17. It was enough to give the arborvitae quite a beating, even though we brushed and shook the snow off them as soon as possible. That snow last Saturday was light and fluffy. This batch is wet and heavy and the arborvitae are sad, sad, sad.
Arborvitae, you will recall, are supposed to be upright, hedge-like…
thusspakezuska | February 5, 2010Penny Richards has created a new purse, available on her Etsy site. Here's some info about it she shared with me (details about the purse construction available on the site):
[the purse honors] Melba Roy, a Howard University graduate (undergrad and masters) who was a mathematician at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in the 1960s. She led a team (four women, seven men) who did computations to track the movements of satellites. I wish I could find more about her, but there's nothing much online--can't even find a birth year (or death date, but she might still be alive).
Get it while it's…
thusspakezuska | February 5, 2010Lindsey Vonn is on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Womentalksports.com notes
Vonn is first a GREAT athlete, but she also represents norm of feminine attractiveness. The combination of athleticism and attractiveness make Vonn the likely poster girl of the US Olympic Team, and the media hasn't disappointed in constructed her as such.
Not to be left out, Sports Illustrated is featuring Vonn on their February 8,2010 cover (pictured here). For those of you who follow SI Covers, know that female athletes are RARELY featured on the cover.
Over the last 60 years researchers have shown that about 4…
thusspakezuska | February 2, 2010Just finished listening to Rebecca Skloot talking about her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, on Fresh Air this afternoon. You can now listen on the web (transcript not yet available).
Around 25:10, Skloot tells Terry Gross about an experience she had with a faith-healing ceremony with members of Henrietta Lacks's family. Among other things, that was the point when Skloot realized that she had to write herself into her own book. It was also the turning point when Lacks's daughter became more trusting of Skloot the journalist. I recommend that you listen to the whole interview…
thusspakezuska | February 2, 2010Be sure to catch Fresh Air whenever it airs in your local market to day, or catch the podcast. Rebecca Skloot is on today, talking about her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which, as I hope you know, is released today. And I hope you pre-ordered your copy already. Fresh Air is on at 3 pm and again at 7 pm in Philly - can't wait!
UPDATE: Terry Gross may just be the perfect person to interview Rebecca Skloot, who is wonderfully telling the story of Henrietta Lacks, and of how she came to tell the story of Henrietta Lacks. If you don't get to listen to Fresh Air on the radio,…
thusspakezuska | February 1, 2010Well, with a little pork.
My mother used to make haluski, which is basically chopped cabbage fried in butter and served over boiled noodles. In the old days, the bubbas made their own noodles, but we used store-bought packaged. As I kid, I was not fond of haluski, but as my palate became more refined, I fell in love with the treasure that is fried cabbage.
I like to eat haluski in the winter and so does Mr. Z. Lately we have been mixing up the basic, simple recipe. Tonight we got a little carried away.
You could make this without bacon and it would still be delicious, but we started…
thusspakezuska | February 1, 20101. First, a question. What is a blog?
Generally speaking (although there are exceptions), blogs tend to have a few things in common:
A main content area with articles listed chronologically, newest on top. Often, the articles are organized into categories.
An archive of older articles.
A way for people to leave comments about the articles.
A list of links to other related sites, sometimes called a "blogroll".
One or more "feeds" like RSS, Atom or RDF files.
...Want an interactive website? Wouldn't it be nice if the readers of a website could leave comments, tips or impressions about the…
thusspakezuska | February 1, 2010You, my dear friend, have been EXCEEDINGLY ill for weeks, but still making sure everything at work gets covered, via arrangements with colleagues and telecommuting despite being on strict bed rest orders from your doctor. You're getting slowly better and we, your friends, rejoice at this news. Your douchey boss, however, is hacked off about your "poor planning".
Hmm. I would like to help my husband plan for a bout of a devastating pulmonary illness that leaves him wracked with coughing, weak, housebound, etc. Or some other illness, parameters to be specified in the future (e.g., time of…
thusspakezuska | January 25, 2010I warned Jon, I did. D00d, that thread is for MOCKING MANSPLAINERS.
Now, here I will repost Jon's mis-directed comment. Zuskateers, you may feel free to read (warning: contains mansplaing) or skip right over to the comment thread and post your own examples of Men Who Cannot Follow Clear Directions From Women.
SKM,
I used the word "system," for a reason. I'm not opposed to the idea that there's a particular kind of gendered condescension on the part of males in response to females.
The problem I have is the way it's being discussed, in the sense that there are a number of conceptual…
thusspakezuska | January 25, 2010Mansplaining. We've all had to endure it, on the internets or IRL, so frequently we are often overwhelmed with the desire to hork up serious chunks on the mansplainer's shoes. And yet, you can't always do that. Maybe the mansplainer is your boss. Maybe he's mansplaining on your blog or your Facebook page, and you just can't get at his shoes. What to do?
First, some clarification. Just what is mansplaining? I like this definition.
Mansplaining isn't just the act of explaining while male, of course; many men manage to explain things every day without in the least insulting their…
thusspakezuska | January 24, 2010Mr. Z records live music and is nuts about microphones.
Whenever we watch t.v. he is always pointing out microphones to me. Earlier this evening, the first NFL playoff game ends, there's a crazy scene on the field, confetti flying in the air:
Mr. Z: Did you see that mic?Me: No.Mr. Z: There! There it is! See? It's on a long boom! Wow! That is a really long boom mic!Me: Wow.Mr. Z: I guess you don't notice this stuff like I do.Me: No, I don't, but that's okay.Mr. Z: I just look for mics whenever I am watching tv. See, you aren't the only nerd in the family! I'm a microphone nerd! Or maybe I'm…
thusspakezuska | January 24, 2010This is a story about making chicken soup completely from scratch, with local, organic ingredients, and starting with the carcass of a roasted chicken. The soup was very, very good, and looked like this:
The chicken in question came from Pikeland Pastured Poultry. All the vegetables in the soup came from Landisdale Farm.
But the chicken had to do a little traveling before its bones came to rest in my soup pot.
I bought the chicken frozen at my local farmer's market. And then, on a trip home to see mom last fall, I took it with me for a dinner I had planned to cook for her and her…
thusspakezuska | January 21, 2010Okay, the actual story is this:
if you are an overweight woman you:
⢠May have a harder time getting health insurance or have to pay higher premiums
⢠Are at higher risk of being misdiagnosed or receiving inaccurate dosages of drugs
⢠Are less likely to find a fertility doctor who will help you get pregnant
⢠Are less likely to have cancer detected early and get effective treatment for it
And the story goes on to outline a whole host of reasons, some discriminatory, some actual problems caused by physical realities, why the above might be so. But before you get to any of that, you are…
thusspakezuska | January 20, 2010You may have been hearing some of the buzz about Rebecca Skloot's forthcoming book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh more than 50 million…
thusspakezuska | January 19, 2010Over at A Blog Around the Clock there are a series of posts with great video interviews from ScienceOnline2010, but I'd like to especially point your attention to this one with David Kroll and Damond Nollan, both of North Carolina Central University. It was filmed shortly after their session on "Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Session: Engaging underrepresented groups in online science media".
I missed this session due to a combination of sleep deprivation and headache, and am really regretting it. Isis has a good post based on her attendance at the session, however - you should read it…