Feature image via LittleSassilie on Twitter
Header by Rory Midhani
It feels a little weird to conduct my day to day affairs, lately. I feel like political news is the only thing to talk and think about, the only important thing happening. I need to find a work/life/resistance balance, I think, because right now I feel like all I do is work/resistance, interrupted by the occasional dinner break. My boss wants to have career planning conversations at work and I’m filled with utter apathy. And a tiny voice in the back of my head going, okay, you need to put forth an effort here; you’re going to regret it if you don’t.
Is anyone else feeling this? How are you dealing?
Lady Scientists
- From Nylon:Â 10 Black Women in Academia That You Need To Know About.
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NASA Cassini Project Scientist Linda Spilker and mission planner Molly Bittner took questions on Facebook Live about the latest science orbit of the Juno mission: a close flyby with the craft plunging in close to graze Jupiter’s rings. Easily the best piece of news I took in this past week.
- Mathematician Adriana Salerno is starting a blog called inclusion/exclusion with a solid group of editors that includes women, people of color, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community. The first post is up and I’m adding it to my RSS feed, maybe you want to too.
There were a lot of women tweeting under the hashtag #actuallivingscientist (a visibility thing) over the past several days! Showing us how they dress like women (a ridiculous thing Trump said). Let us bask in their glory.
Hi, I'm Becka. I do science in Utah's #wetlands, they're neat. I like plants, climbing, & marsh yoga #actuallivingscientist #DressLikeAWoman pic.twitter.com/Xihvn1k1QO
I'm an #ActualLivingScientist who works on cancer therapeutics. And who sometimes wears mismatched gloves #DressLikeAWoman #womeninSTEM pic.twitter.com/LfTNSr5w1s
— Lil Sass 🌺🌸 (@littlesassilie) February 4, 2017
I'm an #ActualLivingScientist working towards my PhD in biochemistry so I can study the effects of space travel on the human body 🚀🔬 pic.twitter.com/OxoYAxieH6
— Anicca Harriot, PhD🔬 (@13adh13) February 3, 2017
Hi, I'm Janet & I study how endangered hawks live in an environment with lots of human development. I like coffee! #actuallivingscientist pic.twitter.com/6vQbAwFls3
— Janet Ng, Ph.D (@janetngbio) February 3, 2017
#actuallivingscientist doing drug development research and growing a baby at the same time #DressLikeAWoman pic.twitter.com/QN8T1muvJZ
— enfields (@enfielding) February 4, 2017
- Here’s an interview with Ashley Spindler, a bisexual, trans woman astrophysicist who loves Stargate SG-1 and studies Galaxy Evolution. Check out the rest of the LGBT STEM blog for more; it’s an ongoing series.
Meltdown
- On Sunday, the House Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology published a press release alleging, based on questionable evidence, that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) “manipulated climate records.” It didn’t.
+ Trump’s EPA pick appears to have made a false statement under oath in Senate hearing. He denies it.
- Washington D.C. police subpoenaed Facebook to hand over data on protestors. I feel a creeping sense of unease about organizing on Facebook, which is why I set up my 10/100 huddle group on Slack. I don’t know if that’s necessary or the best thing to do, but just be careful with your data, okay?
+Â Here’s a list of all the US elected officials who deny climate change.
- Did you read Ali’s coverage on net neutrality yet?
It’s got nothing to do with “free data” or healing the divide. It’s got to do with corporations and their now-unimpeded plans to profit off both consumers and content creators, streaming service providers and whoever else they can make a buck off of. The reason we regulate the internet to assure neutrality is so we don’t wind up with a dystopia where a company can buy incentivized speed or priority, thus incentivizing consumers to use one service over another. Should this truly be an indication of the FCC’s direction over the next four years, it will impact independent websites and services as the dystopia expands.
Trump continues to wage war on truth and push his lies. We’re not buying it, and I’m actually not going to spend time rehashing the latest offenses at this particular juncture. But I’ll be in the comments if there’s anything you want to chat about!
Can’t Hold Us Down
+ Seattle librarians are teaching kids how to spot fake news.
- Yesterday, Science Europe released a practical guide to improving gender equality in research organizations.
+ Researchers analyzed more than 33,000 FOIA requests to see what successful requests had in common. (Spoiler: not actually all that much?)
- Thought this was an interesting perspective from Lucy Kellaway: “I am difficult at work and proud of it.”
+ Brianna Wu Is Here, Queer and Running for Congress in Massachusetts. Continues to be a badass and a heartthrob.
- The March for Science now has a date: April 22, 2017. They have a rad vision and specifically strive for intersectionality. I feel good about it.
Geekery Grab Bag
- The Andromeda Galaxy is colliding with the Milky Way, and Ariel Waldman would like to tell you about it.
+ The fivethirtyeight R package package was released, with data sets from dozens of data journalism stories, including stories about police killings in the US, references to presidential candidates in hip-hop lyrics, and a complete worked analysis of movies satisfying the Bechdel Test. Seems neat!
Here’s a relaxing video of someone making tiny succulents out of clay:
My guess is aloe vera, fenestraria rhopalophylla, sansevieria, gollum jade, echeveria.
Notes From A Queer Engineer is a recurring column with an expected periodicity of 14 days. The subject matter may not be explicitly queer, but the industrial engineer writing it sure is. This is a peek at the notes she’s been doodling in the margins.
