thusspakezuska
Posts by this author
October 2, 2006
Hi folks. Last Friday I had a botox treatment for my migraines and it does seem to be having some good effects already. I'm going to give myself another day or so off from blogging since the computer can be one of my migraine triggers.
Please let me stop you before you get a chance to write…
September 27, 2006
I originally wrote this as a comment to my interview over on Page 3.14 and then decided it ought to be its own entry. I thank BSCI for raising this issue, and admire BSCI's prescience, for lauding my role models and mentors is, indeed, the subject of a forthcoming post.
BSCI, regarding the role…
September 25, 2006
I was just traveling around the blogosphere and landed on this most helpful post; thanks to Bill Hooker, of Open Reading Frame, who launched my odyssey. Zuzu, who writes for Feministe, will explain much you need to know about keeping your place. This is invaluable information for any white women…
September 25, 2006
There is a super-fabulous interview with Zuska over on Page 3.14. Page 3.14 is "is your guide to ScienceBlogs. Maintained by Seed's editors, web editors, and the other people who make Seed tick, it points you in the direction of some of ScienceBlogs' finest offerings." But I think it's really…
September 19, 2006
From the September 15, 2006 AWIS Washington Wire
Women at Work-Striving for 25% Female Faculty
In 2000, the European Research Ministries set the goal that 25% of all faculty members would be female by the year 2010. Unfortunately, the numbers are likely to fall far short. To show what the visual…
September 18, 2006
Jeff Knapp asked what kind of advice would I give to a 14-year-old girl who is showing an interest in neuroscience, taking AP classes, and has articulated an interest in science. As the "1" in the title indicates, I'll be posting again on this topic. I'm going to preface my remarks by saying that…
September 18, 2006
This seems as good a time as any to reprint this entry from my blog's previous incarnation. The original title was "Zuska Recommends a Dose of Absinthe".
After some preliminary stuff introducing Absinthe's blog and referring to the then-current Ben Barrres news story (Ben is a neurobiologist who…
September 18, 2006
Tim left this comment over at Uncertain Principles on Chad's post The Pipeline Problem:
I thought the data was pretty clear about this: past high school, the [physics] pipeline is no more leaky for women than it is for men...here's the
Report:
Read it for yourselves.
Examination of the academic "…
September 15, 2006
Earlier this summer, a famous cheesesteak purveyor here in Philadelphia put up a sign in his establishment that read "This is America: When Ordering, Speak English", thus touching off a controversy that raged for weeks. Owner Joey Vento was eventually served with a complaint claiming he was in…
September 11, 2006
I just wanna hurl chunks right now at fellow Sb'er Chad, who writes Uncertain Principles. Chad wrote this foolish entry about the so-called pipeline problem of women in physics. Which just goes to show that even an advanced degree in physics is no guarantee you won't have your head up your ass…
September 11, 2006
Many women in science and engineering have long suggested, only half tongue in cheek, that if we could only have an L.A. Engineer t.v. show it might do wonders to increase the number of young girls choosing STEM careers. Zuska, of course, thinks we'd still have to do something about the morons,…
September 8, 2006
It's the start of the fall semester. New committees are being formed, old committees are having new members appointed and all of them are convening for their first meetings of the year. I happened to get hold of the minutes of the first meeting of the Committee on the Status of Women in Science…
September 7, 2006
This entry is sparked by a recent comment from Markk:
Quit yelling about men -in engineering- and yell about men -in authority- especially academics, abusing their position.
While it is unrealistic to think that I will ever quit yelling about men in engineering, at least until the revolution…
September 6, 2006
So, what would be an example of someone creating a hostile environment in the workplace or educational setting?
An example of "frequent, non-trivial acts of a sexual nature" might be, oh, say repeatedly raping your lab assistant nearly 80 times. The rapist in this case was R. Igor Gamow, "a…
September 6, 2006
It was Faramir in The Lord of the Rings who described Frodo's task as "a hard doom and a hopeless errand". I must confess to feeling that way myself about my own self-imposed task of reporting to you about the pond scum of academia, those who discriminate and harass, the bilious lechers and sexual…
September 6, 2006
So, here's the latest set of reports telling you exactly what the situation is for women in science, nicely collected for us in the AWIS Sept. 1, 2006 Washington Wire (thanks, AWIS!) FYI: STEM = science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. What follows are the titles of three reports, AWIS…
September 6, 2006
The mysterious pixies who were haunting Thus Spake Zuska and messing with my ability to post comments and do other blog tasks have gone away. Either the fabulous Tim Murtaugh has cured my website, or it healed itself. Whatever. All seems to be operational again.
September 5, 2006
If you have tried to post a comment to this blog in the last few days and got a message telling you it was being held for approval by the blog owner, don't feel bad. I got the same message.
Also, I didn't receive my own comment to be able to approve it. And I didn't receive yours, if you made one…
August 31, 2006
Possessing, as I do, numerous credentials that allow me to pontificate in an authoritative fashion** upon the significance, meaning, and import of global warming, I, James S. Robbins, am here to tell you the truth.
Who gives a rat's ass about global warming? We here in the U.S., and our neighbors…
August 30, 2006
This post is a reply to a comment earlier this month from a very distressed young woman named Ellen. I'm sorry I wasn't able to reply sooner but family crises intervened. Ellen commented on the third in a series of posts I made regarding two calendars recently published, one in the U.S. and one…
August 29, 2006
At FairerScience.org I found this link to Val Henson's home page. Val is an operating systems programmer and one helluva woman. You'll want to check out her A Woman of Deeds essay. The essay takes its title from one of those "there, there, don't you worry your pretty little head about it"…
August 29, 2006
Zuska wishes to announce to the entire blogiverse that Dr. Shellie was NOT being snubbed on the blogroll after I moved over here to Scienceblogs.com. Her temporary disappearance from my blogroll was due to my own ineptitude with HTML code and learning the ins and outs of Movable Type's publishing…
August 29, 2006
A wonderful blog, FairerScience.org, has brought us this delightful piece on our innate biological womanliness.
...last winter, the Times Online published an editorial by Anjana Ahuja suggesting that little girls' preference for "pink fluff" is a biologically determined feature of girlhood.…
August 28, 2006
Last Tuesday's the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that evolutionary biology, you will recall, had been left off a list of eligible science majors for students applying for federal SMART grants.
A Department of Education spokeswoman had assured us this was only due to a "clerical…
August 25, 2006
Each year, Beloit College publishes a list that gives you a sense of what the world looks like to matriculating college students. Read the latest list and weep at just how out of touch you are with this year's entering college students.
August 24, 2006
Update: Okay, screw Typekey, it's anything goes here. Anyone may comment, comments will be immediately published, and I will rely on the spam filter. Let's see how that works! Advantages: Still less work for me, less hassle for you. I can always delete spam that slips through. Also,…
August 23, 2006
From the August 22, 2006 Chronicle of Higher Education daily news update:
Educators Question Absence of Evolution From List of Majors Eligible for New Grants
Like a gap in the fossil record, evolutionary biology is missing from a list of majors that the U.S. Department of Education has deemed…
August 22, 2006
If you are a long-time reader, thanks for following me here.
New folks can look up all the prior good stuff here. Information available under the "About" tab may help orient you in the Zuskasphere.
Important
You should note straight off that this is not a blog about hearts and flowers and…