Laci Green explains it all in her own amazing way. Warning, there is some Gangnam Style involved ...
Best quote: "We need to create college environments and culture that support women in the sciences in the same way that the men are supported". I can't count the amount of women that have told me that they've felt bullied and talked down to as they've supported their scientific goals.
Watch the video below and marvel about how everything we know is a small part of the larger universe. For more info, check out the animation studio ORDER and read Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan.
The above pic is me, showing off my effortless swag that caused me to shatter my glasses on the pavement. While I wait a week or so for my new pair to arrive, I'll be rocking the ugly tape that decides to peel off at least once a day. Yeah, I'm awesome.
For those of you that have never had an eye exam, there's more involved than the eye chart reading that you've probably seen in the movies. The most notable part is the one that used to scare me as a kid - the glaucoma "eye puff" test. Otherwise known as The Puffy.
The test involves putting your head in front of a machine and resting your chain on an always dirty chin strap (seriously, they never clean them). You hold your eye wide open for as long as possible, without blinking, until they put a strong puff of air into your eye to measure fluid pressure.
That little puff, (and it has become smaller and more gentle as technology has evolved) is measuring the fluid pressure inside the eye. There is fluid constantly being produced in your eye and a drainage system that ferries it back into the bloodstream. When the drainage system malfunctions, the pressure inside the eye starts to rise. We know from large-scale studies that keeping the eye pressure low enough helps prevent loss of sight. High pressure acts to dampen the circulation to the optic nerve and cause a slow, painless loss of vision. Over 50% of the nerve may be dead before you become aware of the loss of vision, so annual eye pressure checks are good, preventative medicine.
Sounds horrible, and it is definitely uncomfortable. But it could be worse! In the 19th century, a similar machine known as a tonometer measured eye pressure by pressing small weights onto the eye. Yeah ... I'll pass on that.
Stay puffy my friends!
I've posted in the past about gender diversity in the sciences. There have been gaffes, such as the EU attempt to get women more involved in science by making it "sexy". But there has been plenty of positivity out there too - women like Adria Richards, Clara Ma, Andrea Deveaux, Sally Ride, and the ladies of Nerdgasm Noire Network.
Iit disgusts me to read stories that women in the gaming industry are sharing via the #1ReasonWhy hash tag on twitter, and covered by publications such as Mother Jones and GamesIndustry.biz. Women are not being valued for their contributions to the gaming community and it had to stop if we ever want to be the true center of innovation and excellence that we claim to be.
When women are being asked about husbands and body parts more than there science and tech skills, is there a question why less women wan to enter these industries?
The more women we have making games, the more games we will have that accurately represent the full human condition. Lets face it - a male dominate industry is not good for any of us, especially given the purchasing power if women in our economy.
Discrimination within the science and tech industries only harms us all. Lets put a stop to it.
I went to college for electrical engineering, which means that I made a lot of things blow up and risked electrocuting myself on my daily basis. Unfortunately even though I grew up as a geek, college was the first time that i ever interacted with one of these devices.
Luckily, parents today have much greater choices to engage their children in the wonders of electronics. Littlebits is an awesome device playground for young children that I wish I had as a kid. As a matter of fact, I'll likely order one and review here because it looks very cool, and much more user friendly then what I had to use ten years ago.
If you can't see the video below, click here.
