- It’s Ada Lovelace Day! – If you want to participate by writing about a woman in technology, check out this amazing list of ideas by the The Ada Initiative.
- Yet another shirt with a degrading message on it – Oh hey, it’s even on sale, lucky us!
- Are women leaving men behind? – From John, and here’s the answer from Bug Girl: New research busts myth about gender gap.
- Breast cancer’s mixed narrative – “For years, women were taught the necessity of early detection for breast cancer based on the notion that breast cancer is a relentlessly progressive disease that will inevitably kill you if you don’t remove it in time…But it turns out that this mental model of breast cancer is wrong.”
- Cute Animal Friday! Nowoo would like us all to learn some math this morning, with these husky puppies that are an example of a packing problem.And when they say flame-haired baby langur, they mean flame-haired.
Yes! Ada Lovelace Day!
“Forget this world and all its troubles and if
possible its multitudinous Charlatans – every thing
in short but the Enchantress of Numbers.”- Charles Babbage, in letter to Lovelace 1843
That gender gap article was really interesting. I hope it IS taken as a call to arms. There is simply no excuse to lock out half the population. It does everyone a disservice – not just women.
I thought it was interesting that several points in the TED talk seemed to directly contradict the busted myths in the article(particularly the down turning economy affecting men more). It makes me a bit suspicious about the statistics both parties were throwing around.
It also made me a bit uneasy that the TED talk seemed to be using newspaper headlines to back up many of its claims. That said, it’s a TED talk, it’s kind of hard to reference a list of academic papers in a visually interesting way in a 10 minute presentation:)
The myth article is based on a longitudinal study of MBA graduates–it’s far more solid evidence.
I can definitely see some ways that study could be improved, but that’s true of all research.
I like my t-shirt idea better: “If you’re rich, hands where I can see them. Now slowly remove your wallet, drop it to the floor and kick it over…”
@scribe999 COTW!
That made me laugh so hard!
In general, I posted a quick tribute to Grace Hopper on my blog. It seemed only fitting as a professional debugger :D
Thanks! I sometimes think t-shirt ideas don’t go far enough with their idiocy. Instead of “gold digging”, why not try mugging instead?
I can see why that Tee is on sale… no one is buying it.
I remember Ada fondly. In a previous incarnation her image graced my cubicle where I worked with the first fully compliant Ada compiler.
I am of many minds on the breast cancer article. I actually understand statistics and know how numbers are misused. On the other hand, my ex wife was pretty clear on how her procrastination was going to kill her – and she was right. She put off some tests that delayed detection and treatment until it was too late. When statistics reduce to a real person, any narrative loses interest.
Amanda,
A lot of TED videos are really interesting, including that one about changing work place demographics, that you posted here.
Hello All,
In regard to the gender gap thing and women taking over, I read an article in Slate that discussed this issue and pointed out that over 95% of the world’s wealth is still owned by men. Please note that this doesn’t necessarily mean that men own >95% of everything but rather that the ruling elite across the world are overwhelmingly male.
Most of the news articles I have read point to statistics indicating that women are well represented at the lower levels of all professions (grad students, junior lawyers, management) but are very under represented at higher levels (senior professor, law firm partner, CEO etc) and suggest that this is due to gender discrimination. My personal view is that this is not discrimination against women but against primary carers (overwhelmingly women) who are less flexible and less able to provide time in extremely demanding professions.
The gender gap is also a well known aspect in education with girls doing, on average, significantly better than boys in academics. Some critics have sought to blame this on the higher percentage of female teachers than male: “Education is for women, by women!” I recall one critic saying. Others blame the lack of male role models in schools for the relatively poorer performance at schools. My own personal view is that a far higher percentage of boys dream about becoming professional athletes than girls and this may be enough to cause a difference in academic performance.
Oh well, that’s my $0.02.
Meepo!
Because of how things worked with the last shirt, I have to ask: is there a Skepchick policy about mentioning the site when leaving reviews?
Never mind. Posted that it had been linked on Skepchick and briefly mentioned the JCP incident.
Skeptics in South Lousiana, in anticipation of my birthday, October 29, I’d like to really have something to celebrate; Help me fight hunger at home by donating to Second Harvest of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana. Just follow my link right here:http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/shyra-latiolais/birthday
Thank you for your help!