thusspakezuska
Posts by this author
January 30, 2008
The Philadelphia Inquirer has an interesting article today about the "issue of cultural sensitivity...in the world of comedy". Comedy: When The Laughing Stops looks at how comedians struggle with knowing where to draw the line - and when to go ahead and cross that line.
Some people fear that…
January 28, 2008
Mrs. Whatsit pointed out that Propter Doc has recently written on the topic of blogging under a pseudonym. It's a very thoughtful post and touches on many of the issues we discussed at the NC Science Blogging Conference. In the middle of the post, Propter Doc says the following:
If you blog about…
January 28, 2008
Here's the paradox: there are differences between men and women that manifest themselves in engineering practice, so diversity is good, except there aren't really any differences between men and women that matter in engineering practice, so diversity doesn't matter to the profession. Huh? Who's…
January 26, 2008
Hooray! I have some new Sciblings!
Drugmonkey and Physioprof are now co-blogging at Scienceblogs. Visit them here and tell them how happy you are they joined Sb. Check out this excellent post Science Pays:
This brings today's discussion around to the topic of diversity in science, careers in…
January 24, 2008
Make your blog more interactive! but do it ethically..
Two great sessions at the 2008 NC Science Blogging Conference offered up great insights on these two aspects of the blogger's craft. Janet Stemwedel ran the session on ethics and Dave Munger did the one on interactivity. That truly was an…
January 22, 2008
Coffee, good food, and the world's best popsicles - these were just a few of the perks associated with attending the 2008 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference! Not to mention mingling with 200 other bloggers, journalists, educators, and students. I've been so out of touch with the blogging…
January 17, 2008
Just yesterday I posted information about a new resource on recruiting women and girls into information technology. Ironically, the same day American Public Media ran this story about Jean Bartik, one of the original "computers".
Yesterday in San Francisco, Apple released its new computer, the…
January 17, 2008
Karen Ventii has posted information about how to join our session online at the conference wiki. Here's the details:
[The Gender and Race in Science Blogging] session will be broadcast LIVE on Saturday January 19 at 11am on Ustream.tv. Please tune in and participate online. Please note that you…
January 16, 2008
Some interesting things came across my listservs this week; one from WEPAN, another from the WMST-L listserv: a new book on recruiting women in IT, and a very interesting call for papers. Details after the jump.
Reconfiguring the Firewall
A comprehensive volume authored by three Virginia Tech…
January 15, 2008
I thought things would settle down a bit after I got back home, but it appears my life is still more or less consumed with endless amounts of paperwork relating to my mother's finances, change of addresses needing to be made, dealing with the insurance companies. I am sure this will all settle…
January 11, 2008
Karen Ventii of Science to Life and I are hosting a panel next weekend at the NC Science Blogging Conference, and we'd like your input. The title of the panel is "Gender and Race in Science". I think it was supposed to be "Gender and Race in Science Blogging" but oh well. We can make the…
January 10, 2008
Today I introduce a new category, "Outrage of the Week", just so I am able to tell you about the nice young men who recently competed in the New Jersey King of Campus Comedy contest.
As reported in the Chronicle (Jan. 11, 2008 issue):
The competition's most popular topic was, believe it or not,…
January 9, 2008
Hmm. I seem to remember this thing called blogging...used to do it all the time...lo these many weeks ago. Let's see if I'm able to get started again.
The past month and a half I've been taking care of mom and working with my siblings to arrange everything for her to move into assisted living.…
December 11, 2007
Sheril Kirshenbaum and Chris Mooney, over at the Intersection, have organized a call for a presidential debate on science and technology issues.
Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific…
December 10, 2007
Earlier this month, my siblings and I were out on a daylong excursion with my mother. It was lunchtime, and we decided to go to local restaurant for our meal. We pulled into the plaza parking lot and my brother headed for the handicapped parking spot near the restaurant entrance, as my mother…
December 10, 2007
Fellow Scienceblogger Steve Higgins over at Omnibrain introduced me to the Daily Coyote. I have fallen in love. And I bet you will, too.
December 7, 2007
I have no time for a real entry, but if you haven't yet had your daily quota of sexist nonsense, check out these two links.
Melissa McEwan parses the gender segregation at the Discovery Channel Store. (Thanks to Bora for tipping me off to that post.) In case you were wondering where to get…
December 3, 2007
Ask a Scienceblogger asks: " What's the deal with "virgin birth" (parthenogenesis)?"
Many people, when they hear "virgin birth", think of the Virgin Mary. But all good Catholics know that Mary, Queen of Heaven, is not a true example of parthenogenesis. Really - do you imagine that the Catholic…
December 2, 2007
I finally had a chance to check in and I discovered three comments languishing in the junk folder, waiting for me to promote them to publication. A few were weeks old. I'm really sorry about that. I'm involved in a 24/7 caretaking situation and just don't have much spare time. I'll try to pay…
November 8, 2007
Hi folks. Just wanted to say that blogging's going to be a bit thin in the next few weeks. Got some family health issues I have to deal with. I don't know how long this will take to sort out, and don't know if I'll be able to do any blogging at all in the near future, though I'm going to try.…
November 4, 2007
October has come and gone, and the Scienceblogs Donors Choose Challenge is over. You helped TSZ raise $1500 of a total $54,335 from all Scienceblogs challenges. That plus the $15,000 matching funds from Seed brings the total amount raised for Donors Choose to $69,335!!!! Over 155 classroom…
November 4, 2007
Ladies, all these years you've been using blenders and understood them as belonging to the category "kitchen gadget".
But when he uses the manly new stainless steel RPM blender, it's not a kitchen gadget, it's a tool!
Or so the manly man on HGTV's "I Want That! Kitchens" informed viewers this…
November 1, 2007
Something a little lighter after all that Watson-puke of recent days...
...The World's Fair's exceptional "I rank number one on google!" meme!!!!
I'd like to suggest a meme, where the premise is that you will attempt to find 5 statements, which if you were to type into google (preferably google.com…
November 1, 2007
David Perlmutter, professor and associate dean for graduate studies and research in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, has a column in the November 2 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education on knowing when to keep a secret.…
November 1, 2007
Yes, it's November 1, and that means Scientiae time! Over at Yami's place, Green Gabbro.
I begged and begged my fellow male Sciblings to take up Yami's challenge and participate in this Scientiae, and two - count 'em, two! - of them responded! Kudos to Abel Pharmboy at Terra Sigillata and Chris…
October 29, 2007
Wow! I asked, and you responded. Thanks! My challenge is funded at 100%. That's $1500 (actually, a little more) impacting 345 schoolkids!
You can still donate if you want to, even though my initial goal has been reached. There are still some open proposals on my challenge list, including two…
October 29, 2007
When I was a postdoctoral student my supervisor sent me for three or four days to what we participants called "cancer camp". It was a mini-course on the histopathbiology of cancer. We learned to interpret pathology slides, how to look at them, read them, identify cancer in all its various forms…
October 29, 2007
...the deadline for the end of the Donors Choose fund drive is rapidly approaching. I'm bummed that it looks like TSZ will not reach 100% of its funding goal. That means some potential matching funds will go unclaimed. I realize many of you may have other favorite charities you support, so I…
October 29, 2007
Dave Munger at Cognitive Daily introduced today a new set of icons that will help readers identify blogging on peer-reviewed research. You can find the full announcement below the fold, including info on where to find the icons, how to use them, and how to find blog posts tagged with the icons…
October 27, 2007
Some great posts on other blogs you may have missed reading:
Language Log has a great critique of the new PBS show WordGirl, which I found via Fairer Science. If that's not enough to make you grind your teeth, then read Pat's roundup on the Bionic Woman, Ubisoft's Imagine video games, and Barbie…