March 18, 2008 at 10:29 am · Filed under abundance, minutiae
Yesterday morning the kid and I made a radio and in the process the kid explained to me that yes, indeed, the variable resistor does turn–becoming the tuner to our a.m. toy. This is exciting. More exciting is switches in parallel and switches in series and completing a circuit and reasoning out on occasion why our inventions don’t work. Usually the rationale starts with “We know it all goes from plus to minus, now what isn’t working.”
There are 300 diagrams, experiments and explanations. The components all snap together, like snaps on a shirt. This is the most beautiful piece of accessible science I’ve seen since I lusted over a real microscope set in the Sear’s catalog in sixth grade.
So much truth and beauty in a cardboard box.
March 8, 2008 at 9:32 pm · Filed under taking a stand
i always kind of cringe when i attend *women* oriented talks, generally too sex/gender reductive, but somehow i thought it was my duty to attend the “what women need to succeed” panel today at sxsw. it’s an understatement to say i shudder still.
from the panel description: With a lack of high-profile women in tech-related fields, the question arises–glass ceiling or glass hat?
i hadn’t heard the term “glass hat” before but in the panel discussion, it was strongly suggested by the moderator that the hat, not the ceiling, was the issue for discussion.
glass ceiling: a ceiling based on attitudinal or organizational bias in the work force that prevents minorities and women from advancing to leadership positions
thus i’m assuming that “glass hat” is an attitudinal or organizational bias that minorities and women chose to hold about themselves that prevents them from advancing to leadership positions.
the perspective that women and minorities do not advance because of something they themselves are choosing to do is tricky and lonely. as a proponent of field research, situative models of action and a special interest in the Stanford Prison Experiment, i think context matters. it doesn’t necessarily determine the actions of every individual, but those that transcend their context are in a minority. it may be safe to say, all of the women on the panel have successfully transcended their context–they are women in technology in leadership positions–and their actions have been exceptional.
two of the women self-report that they work all the time, one woman started her own company so that she could craft her own parent friendly environment, one woman employs a *wife* to perform many household and childcare tasks, and one woman responds to the issue of life-work balance with the notion of fuck life-work balance….you chose to have children.
the reality is that there will always be a few people who perform amazing feats and are able to transcend their context, but i guess i was more interested in how we might transform the context so the lot of us (and many more girls and women) who are equally, but not exceedingly exceptional to the men we work with, also have a place in our industry.
two tangential context transformations of late:
Free tuition at Stanford, Harvard and Yale
Stanford University announced that it would eliminate tuition costs for families earning less than $100,000. With the third highest endowment in the nation and the highest in California, Stanford follows Harvard and Yale who made similar decisions earlier this academic year.
New childbirth policy for female graduate students
The university has adopted a childbirth policy for female graduate students to accommodate the demands of late-stage pregnancy, childbirth and the care of a newborn. The new policy will allow the new mother to maintain full-time, registered student status, as well as facilitate her return to full participation in class work and, where applicable, research, teaching and clinical training in a seamless manner.
March 7, 2008 at 12:32 am · Filed under minutiae
dinosaur sits on the dresser, frozen in motion, like a third ice age has arrived, just for him.
i look at him every time i enter and exit the room, and feel badly that he is switched off, still, and silent. but truth be told, the dinosaur is rather high maintenance.
it seems he always needs explicit interaction….on-going petting, cuddling, playing, feeding. he doesn’t seem able to just be with us. he has so few explicit missions of his own.
the roomba on the other hand, has a job to do, a purpose in life, so to speak. it is enough to share missions in the same room, to momentarily meet and then to go about individual tasks once again.
hypothesis: pleo is a puppy. roomba is a cat.
small update: above image is from *a roomba costume shop*
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