thusspakezuska
Posts by this author
February 10, 2009
I love being part of ScienceBlogs. I've gotten to meet a lot of my Sciblings in person by now and have generally found them to be wonderful people. Readers, I like them!
Except. I really don't like the trash one of my Sciblings has been flinging around lately. Sooooo not cool. Details over…
February 9, 2009
In my last post, I wrote
Me, personally, I'd like to see a lot more chicks in touch with their Inner Pissed-Off Woman, spouting off, making people uncomfortable. It's good for all of us.
I received an email in response from Anonymous Reader:
I...liked [your] post about sometimes you just have to…
February 8, 2009
Here's the story:
Samia was hacked off about something.
I know I recommended white science bloggers link to other bloggers in a show of link-lovin, but some of the stuff I see just seems tokenizing/LOOK AT ME I'M OPENMINDED! Ew. Fuck a bunch of wannabes.
This kinda got Isis hacked off.
What the…
February 5, 2009
It was snowing again last night as I drove back from the assisted living home to the house my mother was born in, and it was cold - very cold. It was supposed to get down to around 10° F, with windchills as low as -5 to -15. My route took me past the bathhouse (third picture down on that page)…
February 4, 2009
The Chronicle News Blog has an item today on a new film about the Montreal Massacre, Polytechnique. I don't have time to do much else than tell you about it. Go read what the News Blog has to say about it. Try to ignore the inevitable ensuing pro-con gun control discussion in the comments.
January 29, 2009
A week or so ago I finally gave in and allowed my friends to convince me that I really, really needed to go on Facebook. It has been fun - I've gotten back in touch with some old friends I'd lost track of; I've enjoyed reading tidbits about the daily goings-on of my friends' lives; I've tried to…
January 28, 2009
Perhaps you have noticed our newly redesigned front page, and on that page, a link to the Rightful Place Project. In his inaugural address, President Obama promised to restore science to its "rightful place". Seed Media Group is starting a dialog in response, asking the question "What is science'…
January 27, 2009
The other day I needed to pick up a few items at the grocery store, and run a few errands. So I made a list, because I cannot keep more than two or three things in my head with any degree of accuracy. I used time-tested technology to achieve this purpose: paper and pen.
But apparently this is…
January 22, 2009
Gordon Brownell is the person who got me to go to MIT.
I had turned down my acceptance at MIT because my then fiance (now ex-husband) did not get in. Dr. Brownell telephoned me himself to ask why I had declined the nuclear engineering department's offer. When I explained the circumstances, he…
January 21, 2009
As if the world needed another example of how the American health insurance system is completely insane, maddening, inefficient...I mean, we've all seen Sicko, right? But let me just share the private hell I've been through recently. I'd like to tell you what happened yesterday, but to do that, I…
January 20, 2009
I'm watching the inauguration on tv...all the bigwigs are walking in...and here comes Malia and Sasha. Could those girls possibly be any cuter?
Every time they show a shot of the sea of humanity on the Mall I am just overwhelmed.
I've never had a sense of living through anything so momentous…
December 27, 2008
It drives me nuts that there are so many great articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education - behind a paywall, where you can't see them unless you have a subscription. The December 19th issue had a great essay, In Search of New Frontiers: How Scholars Generate Ideas. If you have a subscription…
December 27, 2008
I wasn't able to blog this when I first saw it in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Dec. 19, but it annoyed me so much I hung onto the paper and saved it for a time when I could.
The typical traffic light is roughly the size of a large table fan.
The hardware necessary to switch a signal from green to…
December 27, 2008
Cat owner? Or just want to be? These engineers can help you out!
December 23, 2008
Via the Chronicle Review New Scholarly Books section:
I haven't read either of these but both look good and I thought they would be of interest to readers of this blog.
The first is Our Bodies, Our Crimes: The Policing of Women's Reproduction in America, by Jeanne Flavin.
In Our Bodies, Our…
December 23, 2008
Last winter it was not uncommon for me to go to bed wearing two flannel nightgowns. I would hunker down under our thickest comforter, pressed up against Mr. Zuska for warmth. Mr. Zuska, like many men, is an astonishing heat source, for which I have been grateful on many a chilly night.
This…
December 23, 2008
By request of the domestic and laboratory goddess, I am posting here a picture of my recent acquisition, a pair of ankle boots, as mentioned in my last post. It's no shoe of the week, but it's the best this hairy-legged feminazi can offer.
The adorable cat next to the boots is Bodhi, who…
December 22, 2008
I don't particularly enjoy having needles poked into my scalp and neck and shoulders and temples and I especially don't like having them poked into my forehead just above my eyebrows. Yet I allow my neurologist to turn me into a pincushion every three months because regular botox treatments subdue…
December 18, 2008
Over at Adventures in Ethics and Science, Janet Stemwedel has written a fabulously complex post about ethics and population, which I highly recommend for your reading pleasure and contemplation. It was inspired by a post by Martin on the ethics of overpopulation, in which he offered a grand and…
November 30, 2008
Tomorrow I'm off to western Pennsylvania, for a week with mom. Taking her to some doctor appointments, but more importantly, finishing up the planning and preparation for her 80th birthday party, which we will celebrate on Saturday the 6th. After the party I'll be back home for just a few days…
November 26, 2008
Tonight I watched the Barbara Walters interview with Barack and Michelle Obama. They were talking about their daughters' reactions to the White House, and shared a story about Malia. She said that she had thought that the White House would be an untouchable place, where you would be afraid to…
November 25, 2008
Mr. Z and I went to see "Quantum of Solace" last Friday night. The cineplex was packed and teeming with Twi-hards. I went into the bathroom and found three of them before the mirror, primping and fixing their carefully coiffed hairdos.
And what hair they had! Long hair, thick hair, shiny hair,…
November 23, 2008
I've been essentially caffeine-free for about five years now. After my stroke, when the migraines got progressively worse, all sorts of things that never bothered me before suddenly began serving as migraine triggers. Peanut butter. Bananas. Yoghurt. Onions.
And caffeine.
Now, caffeinated…
November 19, 2008
I haven't done a meme in forever. I was going to spend time today writing something substantive in response to the many thoughtful comments on my blog post on the proper way to be a woman in science. Or on some new topic. But instead I'm producing a response to this meme. Blame PhysioProf.
5…
November 19, 2008
These may be of interest to readers of this blog:
A new web resource, that's really a catalog of many resources:
[Ruta Sevo has] posted about 100 recommended resources on women in science and engineering, organized into small chunks, calling it "10 x 10 List." When you use Google to find things,…
November 14, 2008
Though university administrators seem to be widely reviled among faculty members, one of the best jobs I ever had was in administration. Many wonderful opportunities came my way; possibly the most mind-stretching, exhilarating, and rewarding of these was the chance to spend four weeks attending…
November 11, 2008
Late last month the Chronicle ran a neat piece in its Careers section, titled Mothers in the Field. It's not behind a paywall - yay! Joan Ramage Macdonald, assistant professor of geology at Lehigh University, and Maura E. Sullivan, PhD candidate in ecology at the same university, write about…
November 11, 2008
At this point in the fall, most things in my garden have closed up shop till next spring. Oh, there are some chrysanthemums blooming, and the Virginia sweetspire and chokeberry tree have put on their fiery fall colors, but there's not much in the way of growth going on.
Except for the evil…
November 7, 2008
According to the Chronicle Newsblog
Female professors at the University of Texas at Austin earned an average of $9,028 less than their male counterparts in 2007, and senior female faculty members there feel more isolated and less recognized for their work than do their male colleagues.
You can…
November 7, 2008
Zuska is thrilled to announce that Dr. Isis the Scientist, Domestic and Laboratory Goddess, has joined ScienceBlogs! Yay! Another kick-ass woman blogger in the neighborhood! And a well-shod one, too! Stop on over and say hi as she gets settled in to her new digs. Welcome, Dr. Isis!