Thoughts, ramblings and other stuff

It's International Women's Day and this year's theme is #PledgeForParity. Which apparently means all the really useless world leaders came to share their thoughts about women. It's almost as if this had been something they learned from early childhood. So maybe better to internalise some awesome fictional women. And even better get inspired by six real ones (from human right activists to scientists). And think about those who changed the world.

I leave with today's google doodle film but if you want more there is a whole bunch of articles here.

Ada Lovelace Day is an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). Ada Lovelace Day was founded in 2009 by Suw Charman-Anderson, and part of her reason for doing this was a worry that women in tech were invisible. The idea was a positive one - rather than highlighting the problem, highlight the unseen women and shout from the rooftops about all the amazing things they’ve achieved.

As always it is about getting women into science, especially into programming - like over 200 girls in the Deichmanske, Oslo’s public library, for a packed day of coding. But it's also about the inequalities and stereotypes that still exist in the field. The recent uproar that lead to #ilooklikeanengineer when a tech company put one of their actual engineers on their ad and people started commenting on how she is too pretty to be an engineer. So she fought back and was joined by all those who heard you don't look like/are too pretty to be engineer/coder/scientist. Most of them women. Add to that the fact that women in tech earn 32% less than men and you see all that still needs to be done.

Back home the heat wave is just ending (36C!) and school begins and I'm making an aggregation post again.

There were some good news today. Syfy just announced that both Dark Matter and Killjoys are getting renewed for another season. And The Dome is finally being put out of its misery.

And Tatiana Maslany is being linked to another Star Wars leading role -this time in Episode VIII. (Along with some other awesome people.)

Some interesting changes - like Google making most radical change in their logo since last century (it's sans-serif now and G has multiple colours).

And if you want to get angry (or depressed) Anita Sarkeesian released another Tropes vs Women in Video Games video and it's Women as Reward this time (reminds me when I unwisely tried to see how Falling Skies ended and wanted to throw something at TV).



And if you want to get really sad - Terry Pratchett's last book has been released today in US (it's been out in UK and Commonwealth since last Thursday). The Shepherd's Crown is part of Tiffany Aching series. The final glance at Discworld before the glass ball becomes completely opaque.

I just changed time and the weather is perfect today so I spent most of the day outside and it's 7 pm and still not dark. It's not yet pollinating (thanks to all the cold recently) but very sunny and warm but not hot (18C). Perfect for a lunch and long walk with a friend. My female friend because it's also International Women's Day.

This year's theme is Make It Happen. And things are happening all over the world. From Emma Watson's live streamed gender equality talk to all the marches that went through many of the world's major cities to all the other recent events. The Guardian has a great number of articles about the issues and happenings from webchat on "The role of feminism for young people today" to history of women in science (although I'm not sure 10 Best Feminists is really something we need). In New York women were removed from ads by Not There campaign to represent the idea that women are “not there” yet in terms of gender equality. As always Google made a great doodle. On the sad side women internet harassment is still going strong - feminist blog Femsplain was taken offline earlier today by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. And of course some graphs.

So the rumour has it Tatiana Maslany has been cast in a lead role in the next Star Wars standalone spin-off movie. It still hasn't been officially announced but all the signs and unofficial sources confirm it's true. I wish her all the success she deserves but I hope she'll keep doing Orphan Black. Being Human never really recovered from Mitchell's death. For now we have all the Clone Wars jokes you can think off.

The American remake of Broadchurch just died but that doesn't discourages them from trying again and again. Newest victim - Black Mirror. I have no idea how they plan to turn that into an American format TV series. Also Luther is getting Americanised. I don't really see it working as 20-something episode series but maybe the original creator do.

In Joss Whedon's Buzzfeed interview he elaborates on his words about his criticism on excuses for lack of female superheroes, not doing any more Avengers movies, maybe doing Captain Marvel and his own projects including a film about female Batman-like character. He's also sad that Fox has all the X-Men with all the coolest female characters and I agree. What is worst for me they really not doing much with them and there are so many good stories there. But we cannot know that Marvel/Disney would've really been better. Their female characters are still missing from merchandise.

This episode of Tropes vs Women in Video Games comes with the Content Warning: This educational episode contains graphic sexual and violent game footage and it is very true. After a while it become hard to watch. Other tropes annoy me more from the storytelling point of view but this is visually most disgusting.

It's March 8 - International Women's Day. It's one of those horrible communist holidays - which was like Valentine's Day only non-sexual and with more speeches - that was turned into something positive and actually about women.

The Guardian has a whole section dedicated to the day and it has everything - from quizzes to pictures showing the lives of women around the world to protest marches to new laws protecting women.

Here are women talking why it's important it exists and why it matters. The inequality persists and the statistics still show how much needs to change - from lower access to education to lower pay to danger of sexual assault - there is something to be done for all women all over the world. Even if there are always those who can’t see the point of International Women’s Day and don't believe problems exist. The fact that in many ways it's better for more and more women doesn't mean we have solved them. There is a tendency to see other people gaining similar position as losing something. And the justifying the acting as inequality is the fault of the person being mistreated because it's obviously not my fault.

It gets even creepier when these type of justifications are used by rape apologists. New research, however, suggests that men who harass women in bars and clubs aren’t misinterpreting women’s signals because they are drunk. Rather, they may be singling out women who appear intoxicated as easy targets. Here, now you have a scientific explanation why Blurred Lines are so incredibly creepy. And you know you should blame that guy in the bar even more - he did it on purpose.

On nicer end of celebrations - this year's theme for UN celebrations is “Equality for women is progress for all” and was as commemorated at UN headquarters in New York on 7 March.

Scientific American has 15 portraits of women in science and technology and IFLS has 8 not well enough known women in science (so Maria Curie isn't your only answer).

And I'm sure you already saw the Google Doodle for today.

And at for the end, traditionally, carnations*

*In communist Poland women would get flowers for Women's Day and carnations were the popular choice to the point of becoming synonymous with the lack of effort. Still, I'm not against getting flowers. I have to admit that even getting a tulip from a hypermarket is nice even though they just do it so you'd come back to buy more.

Swedish cinemas are to implement new rating for the movies. One that will inform viewers if the film has passed the Bechdel test (to pass it must have at least two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man). Just trying to read the comments makes me realise how bad is still is - so many people take personal offence at this being implemented (in another country). Luckily, in RL all my friends where pro this as soon as I explained to them what Bechdel test is. My Swedish friend said she won't be able to watch a movie without thinking about this. She never thought or noticed before and that is why this rating is a good thing. It doesn't stop you from watching (and liking a movie). It just makes you notice the gender bias. It's easier to get change to happen when people notice there is something to be changed.

Now that Carol Denvers is Captain Marvel the Ms. Marvel name is free and Marvel is filling it with a new character - Kamala Khan. Kamala is a Muslim, Pakistani-American girl living in New York who discovers she has shape-shifting powers and decides to take the name of a hero she is a big fan of - Ms. Marvel. Guess which part of this description has people foaming at their mouths. I always feel awkward about religious characters in a universe that has literal gods (and devils). After all, when you hang out with Thor and fight demons in hell and knowing those are aliens and other dimensions, religion seems a little like denial (or insanity). Still, I like the idea of this character getting her own book. In fact it's awesomely appropriate. Mutant stories are about being different and fitting in.

Netflix is teaming with Marvel to create TV shows that, unlike SHIELD, will actually star superheroes. Netflix will air live-action, 13-episode, superhero TV shows (streaming shows?), based in Marvel Cinematic Universe and starring Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones and Daredevil. There is also a miniseries event based on the Defenders planned. The series will start in 2015 and air (stream) over the next few years. This might be what we were all waiting for - especially if Jessica Jones show is going to be, even remotely, based on Alias.

A town in New York state got a Klingon on the town board. John Hertzler, who played Klingon General Martok on ST:TNG and now is an adjunct professor at Cornell University’s film and theater department, got elected to the Ulysses Town Board in Tompkins County on the 5th of November.

Today is Ada Lovelace Day and this means this year it's on my birthday. Ada Lovelace Day besides reminding people of her achievements is also about the achievements of all women in STEM, both historic and modern. She was the first programmer but many don't think of There are many events that are happening today but the one that I like the most is Ada Lovelace Edit-a-thon 2013- editing Wikipedia to put in more articles about women in science. Most of Wikipedia editors are male and it suffers from certain bias and this is set to rectify that.

This is also a day to blog about women in science but since this is my birthday and I am a woman and a scientist and so are many of my friends this is about people who don't qualify for the Wikipedia (yet).

I just went for a trip with my friends. They both work in NIH so they just had two weeks of unplanned vacations anyway and they just started third. The US government shutdown means they cannot even check their emails not to mention getting anywhere close to the Institute. They do get paid - one is postdoc and the other is a student on Polish scholarship - so they should just lay back and enjoy it, right? But science is not only a job but also a passion - something you like to do if you stayed with it so far. And most importantly it takes time to plan and execute the experiments. Stuff they did just before the shutdown - weeks of work - went to drain. The reagents are getting old. The time is running out. One of the friends has to go back to Poland soon to finish her PhD and there are experiment she needs to do before she goes and she is running out of time.

And they even don't have it that bad. They are working on bacteria and yeast which means the experiments are relatively short and you can freeze (literally) what you are working on. There are people who work on things that take months or even years and sometimes also could save people's lives. Most people think about NIH as completely non-essential so they don't pay attention to how it cripples not only one of the best science institutions in the world but also all that's connected to it - and that's most of American science. That is something that makes the technological advancement possible and brought countless scientists from all over the world here. If this continues and repeats again they all may find something else to do somewhere safer. I know for some of those who caused shutdown this would actually be a desirable result but I hope it's not going to happen.

Women in science are still facing bias and it's more difficult for us to keep working and get on tenure track. It's better then it used to be and daycares are more and more available (my friend's husband who also works for NIH now has to take care of two small kids and he's already had enough) but it's still harder and bunch of politicians throwing temper tantrum doesn't help.

The Google Doodle today is for Rosalind Franklin's 96th birthday. She's the physicist who took x-ray photos of DNA molecule that allowed Watson and Crick to deduce the DNA structure. She died years before the Nobel award for DNA structure discovery so she wasn't eligible but the way her achievements were marginalised meant she probably wouldn't get it anyway. I first heard about her when I watched The Race for the Double Helix Back in primary school. By the time I was actually learning about her in school she had a front seat among pantheon of women scientists. I was completely shocked that she was considered unknown which shows that I underestimated misogyny from very early age.

Of course, if she lived she might've discovered DNA structure herself and she might've gotten the Nobel. If it wasn't for ovarian cancer she might've been still alive today and advanced science in many other ways. Ovarian cancer is still one of the deadliest mostly because the late stage detection due to lack of symptoms. So if you think about contributing to science think about contributing to fighting it.