culture-society-history

Of Booth Babes and Female (Geo)scientists

May 4, 2012

For posterity and your convenience, I’ve storified the recent discussion a bunch of us geoscientists on Twitter had that started with conference “booth babes” and inevitably led to the advances of and roadblocks for female (geo)scientists. Use at will. (Oh, has anyone figured out how to edit a Storify? Can you?) Tweet

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The Chicks Are Angry, Part 1

April 17, 2012
Thumbnail image for The Chicks Are Angry, Part 1

As an (over-)analytical, career, married and childless woman progressing in a mostly desirable career path, I feel compelled to dissect some of the legislation coming out of the escalating Republican War on Women. First, we frame. Is the goal here marginalizing women because God said Men First!, increasing what is believed to be a dwindling [...]

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Trayvon Martin

March 22, 2012

The injustice is not that his killer is not black. Nor does justice lie in that George Zimmerman is not white. You don’t have to be white to act from a place of irrationality and strange fears. Justice and injustice lie in the aftermath. This is why I ask friends and members of my own [...]

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A (Call And) Response To “White Savior Industrial Complex”

March 21, 2012

While appraising items made in, say, Sri Lanka, the Dominican Republic or China for purchase, I wonder who made it, under what conditions, how they live everyday and, almost concurrently, how this purse will look against a pair of slacks in my closet back at home or that hard drive will satisfy my space requirements, [...]

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Superior Good Parenting

February 8, 2012

Oh no, yet another culture is better than us at something! The social media outlets are now blowing up with a WSJ article by Pamela Druckerman about how French parents are superior to their neurotic American counterparts. … After a few more harrowing restaurant visits, I started noticing that the French families around us didn’t [...]

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All-Asian-American Rejects

December 20, 2011

Last night, a friend introduced me to a guy who seemed pretty jovial and decent to be around at a Cheers-esque Christmas celebration. “This is Maitri,” my friend said to the guy. The guy at once waved his hand in my direction as if to dismiss and said, “Oh, she’s just an Oriental.” I didn’t [...]

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Lowe’s Knows – Updated

December 12, 2011

Updated December 12th, 2011: Today’s USA Today has a column on the “All-American Muslim” controversy written by an American Muslim. In it, the author is asked by an Ohio man if Muslim girls can own dolls. It’s a valid question and understanding starts with honest curiosity, respectful interrogation and civil cross-cultural dialogue, which also seems [...]

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On Bayes And Uncertainty Analysis

August 18, 2011

“When the facts change, I change my opinion. What do you do, sir?” — Thomas Bayes, British mathematician and Presbyterian minister The New York Times reviews Sharon Bertsch McGrayne’s The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes’ Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy. Three [...]

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I’m A Dirty, Dark Tamilian

August 16, 2011

Oh, she actually meant dirty. From IndiaTV: A US diplomat was caught in a row after her remarks of “dirty and dark” Tamilians, prompting the American consulate [in Chennai] to term them as “inappropriate”. “I was on a 24-hour train trip from Delhi to Orissa. But, after 72 hours, the train still did not reach [...]

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“Honest Debate”

July 27, 2011

Juan Williams was on the Bob Edwards show yesterday promoting his new book. He stated again that people in Muslim garb in airports do frighten him (without any caveat this time) and that his saying this is part of Honest Debate. If you’re truly interested in such debate, the first rule is to question the [...]

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