Sexism and the aging scientist

Talk about your stereotypes!! As I look about me there seem to be more WOMEN moving forward in higher education. And what about those of us who are finally getting our terminal degrees...hopefully before we are terminal ourselves???

DM, Ed.D —soon to be, at 6:55 am EST on February 16, 2006

US says more scientists, House forgets who President is

You want more scientist? Pay them more some say. Rent them pretty date, maybe more productive? House like to hear themself talk like Kournikova like to see her picture in fashion magazines! US comment that China has censorship on internet and there is more transparency in current WTA tennis uniforms than in your government. Hydrogen power maybe not perfect...oh, but your president talk about it in speech, there can be no fallacy—reminds me of Russia of old.

You want more scientist in laboratories? Why not show them respect? Sharapova has more notoriety than Watson or Crick and you complain about “dates?” Kid has to choose between “jalopy” and “big house and girlfriend?” What is jalopy? Is “jalopy” a society that shows television with “Beauty and Geek” and say Geek are loser? Is “jalopy” a House of Representatives that talk about girls instead of real issues like nuclear weapons, or the fact that US government is afraid to let own graduate scientists back in country to work after graduation because they are not of same color skin? I hear quotation often —this time I not pay for its use—: “I had a dream...that one day we would not be judged by the COLOR OF OUR SKIN but by the CONTENT OF OUR CHARACTER.” Until US have respect for something other than attractive Russian tennis players, covering up everything it does, and a president who spends more time on vacation than caring about his country, you are down a set and it is 5-0 in the second, forty-love, not your serve.

Gregoriy Morgunov, Technical Czar at China, We Got Next, at 10:25 am EST on February 16, 2006

Young nerds and public policy

First, it is a bit of a stereotype that brainy kids are “nerds.” Some are; many are not. At age 58, I’m still a nerd, but that’s my own problem. Maybe some day I can sign up for charm school. As far as public policy is concerned, I ask only this: Judge me according to reasonable indications of what I might be able to accomplish. For college admissions, that means things like grades, test scores and previous accomplishments such as math prizes and so on. For faculty jobs, that means dissertations, publications, etc. None of that has anything to do with race, ethnicity or gender. Yet, if we look at various initiatives of our prestige universities to encourage the young to pursue careers in science, math or engineering, almost all of them have a race or gender angle. White males are almost always on the losing side of those initiatives. When we look at K-12 education, what is the one big issue that keeps coming up and that is now addressed by Federal law? “Gaps.” So huge efforts are spent on the slower types andmoderately bright white males are left to fend for themselves.

I think American higher education needs to admit that some groups will produce more talented individuals in various fields than other groups.Group differences are real. End of story.

larry kostecke, right-wing blogger, at 11:55 am EST on February 16, 2006

ugly dates?

P, While I have never had an ugly girlfriend I can attest that some of my colleagues (also with law degrees) have had ugly girlfriends. While their profession allows them to trade them in for younger models, they often do not. (Most lawyers, that I know, opt to marry other lawyers, because they feel that everyone else is beneath them, and they would not get along with the kind of person that thinks “Survivor” is a neat TV show.) Some people with law degrees have absolutely abysmal taste in architecture. A friend of mine has this disgusting fountain that looks like some sort of large gold-encrusted mosquito on his front long. Disgusting! This proves that the “lawyers have pretty homes” hypothesis is incorrect. On the good side, many PhD candidates have seen the light, quit, and become patent agents or gone to law school. Maybe the solution would be to force lawyers to date ugly women like, apparently, all the scientists do. I will not, however, live in an ugly home.

Larry, at 1:40 pm EST on February 16, 2006

response to Greg

Greg, I don’t watch sports or TV, so I am at a loss to name a sports hero. A friend of mine was a consultant to a Law and Order series, but to be honest, I forgot which one. It probably had a name like “Presumption of Culpability.” Finally, Panasonic manufacturers Nickel Metal Hydride Batteries. Oh wait, you want one in Flint, Michigan. I am too tired to answer that. I don’t have much respect for journalists in general, but they are pretty good at printing our press releases as news, so it doesn’t bother me too much.

Maybe women don’t want to be in the House of Representatives. Maybe they don’t hold popular views. Maybe they are bad managers. I don’t know. (Personally, I think that women are capable of serving in public office if they would lose some weight.

Larry, at 8:45 pm EST on February 16, 2006

Facts and Good Arguments

Wow, Larry, with you every comment is more insightful than the next.

Anyway, it’s not like the median salary for biological scientists is too terrible, at $69K, vs. $94K for lawyers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Also bear in mind that Ph.D. graduates start out with a significant advantage in being less likely to be six figures in debt when they leave school. So it’s not like fear of driving a jalopy (and, uh, does anyone really drive those outside of Hardy Boys novels?) can be the only thing keeping men and women out of grad school. It does seem a shame to be taking aim at the programs which attempt early intervention to excite kids about math and science.

Adrian Seath, at 4:25 am EST on February 17, 2006