cultural observation
grrlscientist | January 17, 2009tags: humor, silly, entertainment, shoes, beer, streaming video
Okay, so this is silly .. (but nevertheless, Dr. Isis will love it) .. but it might make you smile since you might also be thinking about what all of us crazy scientists have been doing last night in North Carolina [0:32]
grrlscientist | January 6, 2009tags: frugal living, survival skills, unemployment, underemployment, financial crisis
I have been barely surviving living frugally for nearly all of my life, although I have been taking this to the extreme these past five years. But now that many of you are also having to either cut back on your living expenses, due to unemployment, underemployment or fear that you will become un(der)employed soon, I no longer feel I have to be so secretive about my own lifestyle, so I thought I'd share some of my own tried-and-true strategies for basic survival skills with you.
Life style changes:…
grrlscientist | January 6, 2009tags: Uncle Jay, humor, satire, parody, streaming video
It's been a whole year since Uncle Jay has SUNG an entire episode, and here's the reminder why! It's the year-end review of the news, and maybe it'll seem a little better with music. [3:21]
grrlscientist | December 4, 2008tags: peer-reviewed paper, psychology, gift wrapping, wrapping paper, behavior, holidays, holidaze
Besides bright lights, my favorite thing about the holidays is wrapping gifts. I love covering a boxed gift with colored papers (or even with plain brown paper bags), I get tremendous satisfaction from folding the paper so it makes precise corners and then I especially enjoy decorating the wrapped gift with bows, ribbons and toy flowers and birds, christmas ornaments or other decorations. I also enjoy figuring out how to wrap unusually shaped objects. However, my most favorite thing to do is…
grrlscientist | October 3, 2008A streaming review of Bill Maher's new film, Religulous, that is being released TODAY. I totally must see this film, and I must get the DVD, too! [4:23]
grrlscientist | October 3, 2008Comedian Bill Maher takes on religion in his new film, "Religulous." He tells Harry Smith that religion can be laughed at, and for good reason. This is a film for everyone who is afraid that the Sarah Palins of the World will take over. This film is scheduled for release TODAY (3 October 2008) [4:03]
grrlscientist | October 2, 2008Bill Maher discusses his film, Religulous, with Larry King. Part of this movie was filmed on location in Heaven. This film is scheduled for release on 3 October 2008 [7:58]
grrlscientist | October 1, 2008I want to go see Religulous SO BADLY, and today, I heard an interview on "Fresh Air" on WNYC with Bill Maher [MediaPlayer: 2:51] where he discussed the making of this film. This film is scheduled for release on 3 October 2008 [2:12]
grrlscientist | September 24, 2008The blogosphere, which is that part of the internet occupied by blogs, is experiencing explosive growth. According to Technorati, one of the major blog tracking services on the internet, the number of new blogs created increased from 75,000 to 175,000 per day from April 2007 to April 2008. Currently, there are at least an estimated 112 million active blogs.
These blogs discuss virtually everything from politics to dating, but there is one topic area that lags far behind in this public scrutiny: science. Even though many millions of active blogs exist, it is estimated that only 1500-2500…
grrlscientist | August 19, 2008tags: Who Blogs, blog writing and personality, Big Five personality inventory, social psychology, technology, computers, internet, researchblogging.org
You all read blogs, and many of you write them, too. But what sort of person writes a blog? Are there particular personality traits that make certain people more likely to write a blog? If so, what are those personality traits? Do you have them, too?
A team of scientists, led by psychologist Rosanna Guadagno from the University of Alabama, wondered what personality traits made some people more likely than others to write blogs. To answer…
grrlscientist | August 1, 2008tags: sex, abortion, feminism, family planning, medicaid, Department of Human and Health Services, contraceptives, birth control pills
This morning, I heard an astonishing interview on WNYC that discussed a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) draft document that was just leaked. This document proposes to redefine nearly all forms of birth control, especially birth control pills, as a form of abortion and allows any federal grant recipient to obstruct a woman's access to contraception [PDF]. Considering that roughly half of all American women use birth control pills, I think this…
grrlscientist | July 30, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, animal migration, ecology, conservation, habitat destruction, global warming, overexploitation
Image: Makoa Farm Horseback Riding Safaris in Tanzania [larger view].
What do salmon, passenger pigeons, American bison and wildebeest have in common? They all are (or were) migratory, and their populations either are declining or have become extinct. In fact, the populations of nearly all migratory animals, from insects to fishes, birds to mammals, are suffering disproportionate population declines that sedentary species are not experiencing. This is hardly…
grrlscientist | July 22, 2008tags: comedy, humor, Robin Williams, streaming video
Yesterday was Robin Williams' 57th birthday, so I have dug up a video of him performing at the Met, back when he was still funny. There is some not safe for work language in this performance, so be sure to not share this video with your boss. Williams talks about alcohol and marijuana a lot in this video. [7:59]
grrlscientist | July 14, 2008tags: poverty level, poverty threshold, federal definition of poverty, Michael Bloomberg, NYC, politics, society
Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity, nothing exceeds the criticisms made of the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed.
~ Herman Melville
How do you define poverty? Do you think it is the lack of nutritious food, clean clothing, reasonable housing and adequate health care? Even though your definition of what constitutes poverty probably hasn't changed much during your lifetime, the basic financial resources necessary to keep you from being…
grrlscientist | July 12, 2008tags: atheism, crackergate, religion, religious zealotry, fundamentalism, freedom of speech, eucharist hosts, transubstantiation, cultural observation
Not so very long ago, Americans mocked muslim nations for rioting and issuing death threats over the publication of a few cartoons in Danish newspapers. A little over one month ago, Americans once again sat back in a cloud of smug judgmentalism as they laughed at the uproar caused by a teddy bear that was named "Mohammad" by a classroom full of kids. American christians aren't so backward and superstitious as all those muslims, the religious…
grrlscientist | July 8, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, female scientists, science publishing, double-blind review, single-blind review, cultural observation, gender bias, sexism, feminism
A microbiologist at work.
Image: East Bay AWIS.
A few months ago, a controversy occurred in the blogosphere regarding whether scientific papers whose first author is female are discriminated against during the peer-review process, and the suggestion was to institute double-blind peer review as a way to mitigate this possibility. "Double-blinding" as this is sometimes referred to, is a process where a manuscript that has been…
grrlscientist | July 4, 2008tags: 4th of July, humor, firecrackers, streaming video
This is what many politically conservative, rural, beer swilling, smoking, gun toting Americans (alias "rednecks") do on the anniversary of this nation's independence: they spend their hard-earned money on diluted blobs of dynamite so they can blow up shit [3:21]
Hrm, lots of noise and expense but overall, a big disappointment .. kinda reminds me of ejaculation. How was it for you?
Since firecrackers (and fireworks, which contain less dynamite) are illegal in NYC, this means that all my neighbors have purchased hundreds and hundreds of…
grrlscientist | July 3, 2008tags: politics, pollution, hunger, global warming, environmental destruction, biofuels, overpopulation, birth control, soylent green
Image: Matt Groening (The Simpson's).
A friend sent a link to an interesting article that was published today in the Guardian. This article reveals that the increased reliance on biofuels by the US and the EU is driving a worldwide food crisis. The confidential World Bank report, researched and written by an unnamed but "internationally-respected economist," has not been published but was instead leaked to the Guardian. Among other things, this report claims…
grrlscientist | June 23, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, scientific ethics, Hippocratic oath, life scientists, corporate culture
I promise never to allow financial gain, competitiveness or ambition cloud my judgment in the conduct of ethical research and scholarship. I will pursue knowledge and create knowledge for the greater good, but never to the detriment of colleagues, supervisors, research subjects or the international community of scholars of which I am now a member.
Scientific misconduct is very expensive, leading to years of wasted research dollars and effort in pursuit of a scientific mirage, and it damages…
grrlscientist | June 23, 2008tags: seven forbidden words, George Carlin, humor, comedy, streaming video
When I woke up this morning I heard George Carlin talk about the seven forbidden words -- another examination of language that eventually led to the involvement of the Supreme Court. This video is not safe for your easily offended boss (but don't worry about the kids -- they already talk like this) [10:38]