Archive for March, 2009
Posted in Academic Life, Extended
March 28, 2009 at 6:56 pm
If you were a misanthropic female traveling alone in China, would you take the adventurous route, traveling from Beijing to Hong Kong by train, knowing there’s a live possibility that you could end up having to share a sleeper car with up to 3 strangers, or would you wuss the hell out and fly?
Having an existential crisis as I try to plan a trip for two conferences in China (rough life). I rarely get to travel abroad, and when I do, it’s always for work. Taking a few extra days to see more than the inside of a conference venue this time and absolutely immobilized while trying to decide how brave to be. Welcoming any and all thoughts and suggestions on this!
Posted in Atheism, Blurb, Critical Thinking?
March 26, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Now, ignoring the stunning hypocrisy of someone preaching the word of God and calling us all idiots, there is an obvious, gaping flaw in this commenter’s logic, well-known to skeptics for years: if you ask where the Big Bang came from, why can’t you ask the same thing of God? I like when Phil stops pandering and explains why so many of his ignorant commenters are idiots. (For non-regular readers: they’re perpetually telling him to stop talking about politics or skepticism and get back to the science. Funny, right?) Link to post.
Posted in Academic Life, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Culture, Extended, Feminism, Technology
March 24, 2009 at 7:44 pm
I suck because I didn’t know about this in time:
Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology.
Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines. Entrepreneurs, innovators, sysadmins, programmers, designers, games developers, hardware experts, tech journalists, tech consultants. The list of tech-related careers is endless.
[...]
All you need to do is sign the pledge, pick your tech heroine and then publish your blog post any time on Tuesday 24th March 2009. It doesn’t matter how new or old your blog is, what gender you are, what language you blog in, or what you normally blog about – everyone is invited.
I barely had time to mention it – certainly no time to partcipate. But now I know for next year. What a fabulous idea.
Ada Lovelace Day – Learn more here.
Posted in Academic Life, Critical Thinking?, Democracy, Extended
March 22, 2009 at 2:52 pm
American colleges and universities are running out of money (as the elementary and high schools did long ago) and those of us who still give a damn are suffering. I have a stress-induced nosebleed today, by way of illustration. I don’t know a single professor who doesn’t work at least 12 hour days, usually closer to 18 hour days, and the overwhelming majority of us would probably get paid more in retail (at least early in our careers, the time when we’re least invested and most likely to jump ship, our idealism the only thing keeping us going most often.)
The discussion over at Pharyngula in response to the University of Florida eliminating Geology is enlightening. The number of people commenting that have no idea what the liberal arts are or why they aren’t first on the chopping block (often the same individuals) is depressing. (You will find “Women’s Studies” are always the first to be called unnecessary and fluffy, which speaks for itself.) Interestingly, something like 75-80% of the students at my liberal arts college end up with advanced degrees, but almost none of them actually plan on that path until they’re finished or nearly finished with their undergraduate careers. I could write a book on this (but several others already have, and I would fall into rants very quickly). I also need to go back to writing an exam, inventing 2 paper topics, and prepping 5 readings for tomorrow. And then I get to do it all over again in 24 hours.
Read PZ’s discussion of the problem, and the hundred+ comments that follow, a few of which are beautiful and lucid, and many of which are indicative of exactly the problem.
Posted in Crafting, Democracy, Digital Culture, Extended, Feminism
March 4, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Happened to stumble upon a photo of one of LisaAnne’s amazing knitting creations on Ravelry – she knits amazing works of art, very often with political messages. They’re phenomenal and leave me speechless (as do the comments on her blog from people saying things like, “I hope your plane crashes. There’s no room in the world for hate like this.”) Do I need to point out the irony in that? Of course not, since you all have more than half a brain.
The pieces are complex in every way – not only would any 1 of these take me 10 years to knit, but the messages are busy and multi-faceted (such as her recent “No on 8″ sweater – which is simultaneously a message about Prop 8 AND a bioethical comment on the “octo-mom” taking over the news.) My columns don’t allow space to display one of her images here, but have a look. They’re challenging as works of art, clothing, political statements, crafts, etc. Just phenomenal.
Worth a look for artistic and political statements, and if you’re a crafter/knitter/crocheter, then you’ll be agape at the skill involved.