right well I've decided to once again turn my attention to a topic that I am hugly knowelable and authoritive on the matter, having had a collosal 2 weeks of experince of studying engineering in a co-ed enviroment. There is still a lot of discussion about the lack of girls in the physical sciences, and what can be done to help this. However there is a lot of black lash (from males) that girls simply just aren't good at math, and why should we be enoarging anyway, if they aren't interested, and the most important, are girls just over senstiive.
Firstly I can definitly attest to the fact that there are way more guys than girls, I'd say at least 80% in some of my math classes and physics, and while there is sexism, I'd definitly say that none of the guys, well the ones I've meet at least, and admittedly,the ones that go out of their way to talk to girls, are far less likely to be sexist, well in the idea that girls aren't good at sciences, definitly don't mean to be sexist. However there are quite commonly small little comments, ie commenting that there are more girls than he'd been expecting. These are small little comments, but they perk up on my radar. What actually triggered this article was the music backing of a video of "the boys are back in town"and I mean its fairly catchy music, so its reasonable enough for them to play it, but the whole notion of bys seriously erked me. But none of these things are actually sexist, they're all really perked up by my imagination right.
Well yes and no, while I'm sure that the person making the video didn't intend it to be sexist, and I definitely get announced myself when people try to make things so uberly politically correct, I can't really fault them for that, but what it did was propagate the general feeling that I and and many girls have, that, but they were just doing what they aways do, it feels like an old boys club. And because it feels like such an all boys club, and because there has been such media attention and such a focus on how boy-orientated engineering girls come in knowing that it is such an all boys club, so they come in with such thick armoer, that we do perk up about these things.
So does that mean that there really is no sexism, and it is just us girls, well yes and no and I think it is almost entirely due to the lack of girls in the sciences. Because there are such limited numbers of girls, us girls come in on the defensive, and the boys treat it like an all boys club, and some of them, well quite a lot of them, think that since there are so little girls in the sciences, that because they are jus bad at it.
So what we have here is really just a recurring circle that unfortunalty isn't going to go away or do anything until we actually physically get more girls in engineering. But how are we going to do that? Well the response everyone seems to be taking is huge attention and programs, mainly aimed at high school students, scholarships for girls, and media attention over these things. While I think these programs are great, I really actually think they are slightly mis-guided.
Firstly, many boys (although most won't say it to a face of a girl) do have this belief, that the girls are sub-standard to theme, because they got in because of special coaching, or programs, and just general resentment that girls get scholarships and guys don't, so in one way these programs are definitely not helping the intrinsic sexism, but the real way they are not helping, is that these programs start to late.
While High school girls, definitely should be encouraged to do the sciences, so should younger girls. In fact I'd argue that it is more important for younger girls, why,, because math and the sciences are cumulative. Aka if a girl misses out earlier in life, they are always going to be dragging behind, unless they make a real effort to catch back up, one area that is misunderstood can result in a shaky foundation leaving a disastrous ruin for the subject, and the girls confidence. Studies have shown that girls as young as 6 associate math as a boy thing,and with this crucial viewpoint, girls believe they are not good at math, when they dont understand something, instead of working through it, they give up, thinking they are just bad at it, and will never good at math. I can tell from my own experience of tutoring that many girls don't think that they are ever going to good at math, and just don't bother.
And all of these ideas culminate, it takes a lot more for a girl to do a math or science class, especially higher ones, especially if the class if full of boys, thus the only people who do these really really like science and math, which is great for them (and explains some of the initial greater variance of math abilities in girls), but the majority of people are not expextionally passionate about the sciences, or never have the chance to find out.
Thus while I love all the programs available, they are far to late, girls have missed out on the crucial early years of working hard or just taking those math and sciences classes, and thus they don't participate in these programs, because they have fallen further behind in the sciences, and thus because they've always been struggling, they don't realise if they actually enjoy it, thus these programs catch only a small net of girls, which is great, but misses out on the majority of girls.
Thus if we really want to address this sexism, we need o start early, its the culture of our society, beauty and the geek, with girls being stupid dumb blondes, not academic, and boys the smart ones, boys growing up play with lego's construction sets, while girls play with cooking sets and dolls. So really the only way to avoid this sexism, is to avoid the sexism of the entire society, which is unfortunalty not going to happen anytime soon, but is definitely something we can attempt to fix.
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Monday, 12 March 2012
Right so on the last episode of Fringe it was revealed that the observers were scientist from a distant future, which really makes some interesting points about scientists. Firstly part of science is supposed to be impartial, you are not supposed to let your own senses or feelings influence the results, thus the observers are fairly impartial, they don't have human emotions (well there not supposed to, look how that ended up for August) they have a greatly diminished sense of taste, they all look the same, giving the impression that they are all the same people, and thus have no personalities, they speak in monotones, and very slowly. Yet this in an example of how science has been breached, scientist really should have very acute senses to make accurate observations.
This is just an example of the extreme hubris that the observers seem to have regarding sceine, and really what they the show says about al sciencetists. The beleive that they are just pure observers, imparitial, perfect scientists. Thus I beleive that the real fatal flaw, the real act of hubris that started the whole Fringe situation, was really Spetember's hubris, in thinking that he was just an obsever, and not actually invovling himself in the science. Yet it was his being seen, which prompted Walternate to miss the cure, and thus Walter to cross over. It's interesting to note that the observer's flaw was based on scientific motives, while Walters was based on emotions.
So Fringe is effectively saying that science shouldn't be based be purely scientific, impirical, becuase that leads to hubris, which is definitly a fair enough point, and a very interesting, but really crucial point to note about science, science is based in logic, yet it has such a human impact.
But back on Fringe, why then does September go to such lengths to correct his mistake. Well partly it has to do something about my personal theory if the observers. I believe that, in the fringeverse at least, all times, all timelines, everything exists at the same time, similar to the situation in the subtle knife, where the dude due can cut wholes between universe, and just step through them into different worlds. The observers have the ability to see and cross through all of these universes and times. and I similar to a lot of other peoples thoerys I beleive the obsevers are quite possibly descendants of peter and oliva, but get their powers due to Henry being a child of 2 universes, however that still doesn't explain how Peter and Olivia would have orgianlly meet, being from 2 different universes. I also don't think the September would go to all this trouble just to make sure he exists.
It is however possible that he woulddo all of this to prevent a possible future, which in some ways involves john mosely, the capsule is definitly coming back, (I so called this!) however its purpose is yet unkown, although we do know that the observers can't touch it, and don't want anyone else to have it, so maybe peter is using it to get back home, as I don't know the beacan is a beacon for each universe, so maybe he'll be able to travel between them, or aline the machine or something using them, or maybe he'll like hold it hostage on the obervers for information or something. I'm not really sure either way, but I know its going to be exciting.
While I'm on the topic of Fringe, I was actually rather excited to hear the Terra Nova got cancelled. Although this could be taken in a bad way, ie fox doesn't want anymore expensive sci-fi shows, and will also cancel Fringe, it also means that there is one less show (and one less sci-f show, because fox sure wasn't going to renew all of them) that Fringe has to compete with, I was actually really worried that Terra Nova would get renewed, as its ratings we still ok, but I'm so happy tha tit got canned, Alacatraz is also dipping and is looking actually very like it might get cancelled, and the Finder just got moved to Fridays, meaning that unless it does some ratings mircle (which could actually increase Fringe's ratings) it also looks like it might get canceled, and breaking in returned with pretty medicore ratings, so the chances of Fringe renewal is actually looking a bit up, heres hoping
This is just an example of the extreme hubris that the observers seem to have regarding sceine, and really what they the show says about al sciencetists. The beleive that they are just pure observers, imparitial, perfect scientists. Thus I beleive that the real fatal flaw, the real act of hubris that started the whole Fringe situation, was really Spetember's hubris, in thinking that he was just an obsever, and not actually invovling himself in the science. Yet it was his being seen, which prompted Walternate to miss the cure, and thus Walter to cross over. It's interesting to note that the observer's flaw was based on scientific motives, while Walters was based on emotions.
So Fringe is effectively saying that science shouldn't be based be purely scientific, impirical, becuase that leads to hubris, which is definitly a fair enough point, and a very interesting, but really crucial point to note about science, science is based in logic, yet it has such a human impact.
But back on Fringe, why then does September go to such lengths to correct his mistake. Well partly it has to do something about my personal theory if the observers. I believe that, in the fringeverse at least, all times, all timelines, everything exists at the same time, similar to the situation in the subtle knife, where the dude due can cut wholes between universe, and just step through them into different worlds. The observers have the ability to see and cross through all of these universes and times. and I similar to a lot of other peoples thoerys I beleive the obsevers are quite possibly descendants of peter and oliva, but get their powers due to Henry being a child of 2 universes, however that still doesn't explain how Peter and Olivia would have orgianlly meet, being from 2 different universes. I also don't think the September would go to all this trouble just to make sure he exists.
It is however possible that he woulddo all of this to prevent a possible future, which in some ways involves john mosely, the capsule is definitly coming back, (I so called this!) however its purpose is yet unkown, although we do know that the observers can't touch it, and don't want anyone else to have it, so maybe peter is using it to get back home, as I don't know the beacan is a beacon for each universe, so maybe he'll be able to travel between them, or aline the machine or something using them, or maybe he'll like hold it hostage on the obervers for information or something. I'm not really sure either way, but I know its going to be exciting.
While I'm on the topic of Fringe, I was actually rather excited to hear the Terra Nova got cancelled. Although this could be taken in a bad way, ie fox doesn't want anymore expensive sci-fi shows, and will also cancel Fringe, it also means that there is one less show (and one less sci-f show, because fox sure wasn't going to renew all of them) that Fringe has to compete with, I was actually really worried that Terra Nova would get renewed, as its ratings we still ok, but I'm so happy tha tit got canned, Alacatraz is also dipping and is looking actually very like it might get cancelled, and the Finder just got moved to Fridays, meaning that unless it does some ratings mircle (which could actually increase Fringe's ratings) it also looks like it might get canceled, and breaking in returned with pretty medicore ratings, so the chances of Fringe renewal is actually looking a bit up, heres hoping
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Kony2012 and being viral
Unless you've been living underneath a rick for the past 3 days, you'd have noticed the Kony campaign, while the campaign definitly had its flaws, I'm not going to talk about that, I'm going to talk about why the campaign was so successful.
Firstly the target demographic of the capiang, so many campaigns these days are aimed at such wide demogrpahics, playing the numbers game, inbvisable children did the smarter-but more risky- startergy, of aiming it at a very specific demographic, and relying on your demogrpahic to spread the message. Aiming it at the youth is also an estremly sucessful stratery-overlooked by many main-stream meadia campaigns they were effectivly tapping into a untapped audience. Youth is always an obvious choice, having this steal, usally a left-wing eager to help, yet often over-looked by chariety ocasions, because many young people don't have a large, if any disposable income, and many charity's campaings are aimed at raising funds.
Although the campaign got a lot of slack for over-simplifing the issue, this is partially what made it so effect. People want to help, but often it seems so complicated, so the issue so dense, that it seems so hard, people just don't go and help. However the campaign was so clear cut, and most importantly had an achievable, if unrealistic, goal. In addition to this clear goal, the campaign also presented us with cleat ways in which to achieve them, so many people want to help, except they just don't know how. But the Kony campaign gave everyone a clear goal, a clear way to achieve this goal, and evidence that these things ha
Most importantly the campaign was positive. Practically every single other charity campaign works on negative camapign, pictures of black and whd worked before. The campaign showed young people participatng in the campaign, and showed all the effective things they had previously achieved.
invisible children lookingmoing sad, but contrated with happy children and saying that our money can make them happier. But the kony campaign didn't focus on that, it didn't focus on donating money, or about thousands of millions of children that we are never going to be able to save, just one person, and actions that we could do, that didn't require any money, a major turnoff for teenagers, but stil be effective. The campaign also gave the teens something to do now, and something to do in the near future. The april 20th date being a month away, plus the immediate effects of the campaign, tweeting celebrities and politicans gave the campaign instead momentum and enough strength to stop it from fizzing out.
In a nutshell the campaign is something extraordinary, and worked because it was so. It was completely different from other viral videos, and importantly other charity videos, but is what every viral video should do, it's positive, makes people feel good after they do so. People are saying that they don't know why this video is so viral, but really, this is one of the viral videos, where it's viralness is easy to explain, I mean it asked people to tweet celebrities and all, although that doesn't diminish what an extraordinarily good job it did.
Firstly the target demographic of the capiang, so many campaigns these days are aimed at such wide demogrpahics, playing the numbers game, inbvisable children did the smarter-but more risky- startergy, of aiming it at a very specific demographic, and relying on your demogrpahic to spread the message. Aiming it at the youth is also an estremly sucessful stratery-overlooked by many main-stream meadia campaigns they were effectivly tapping into a untapped audience. Youth is always an obvious choice, having this steal, usally a left-wing eager to help, yet often over-looked by chariety ocasions, because many young people don't have a large, if any disposable income, and many charity's campaings are aimed at raising funds.
Although the campaign got a lot of slack for over-simplifing the issue, this is partially what made it so effect. People want to help, but often it seems so complicated, so the issue so dense, that it seems so hard, people just don't go and help. However the campaign was so clear cut, and most importantly had an achievable, if unrealistic, goal. In addition to this clear goal, the campaign also presented us with cleat ways in which to achieve them, so many people want to help, except they just don't know how. But the Kony campaign gave everyone a clear goal, a clear way to achieve this goal, and evidence that these things ha
Most importantly the campaign was positive. Practically every single other charity campaign works on negative camapign, pictures of black and whd worked before. The campaign showed young people participatng in the campaign, and showed all the effective things they had previously achieved.
invisible children lookingmoing sad, but contrated with happy children and saying that our money can make them happier. But the kony campaign didn't focus on that, it didn't focus on donating money, or about thousands of millions of children that we are never going to be able to save, just one person, and actions that we could do, that didn't require any money, a major turnoff for teenagers, but stil be effective. The campaign also gave the teens something to do now, and something to do in the near future. The april 20th date being a month away, plus the immediate effects of the campaign, tweeting celebrities and politicans gave the campaign instead momentum and enough strength to stop it from fizzing out.
In a nutshell the campaign is something extraordinary, and worked because it was so. It was completely different from other viral videos, and importantly other charity videos, but is what every viral video should do, it's positive, makes people feel good after they do so. People are saying that they don't know why this video is so viral, but really, this is one of the viral videos, where it's viralness is easy to explain, I mean it asked people to tweet celebrities and all, although that doesn't diminish what an extraordinarily good job it did.
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Romney vs Santorium, the new republican rivalry
I know I know, I haven't blogged about politics in so long, in actual fact I've written tons of post (well not tons, but a few) but before I finish the post, something different happens that competly changes the race, and thus the post is not relevant, and I delete it and then I write something new, and then it changes again, but I am absolutly determined to finish this post, so I will. Since the last time I've posted Gingrich has lost his position of dominance as Romney's primary rival, and champion of the consertivite faction, and Sanatorium has taken over. He's now picking up large amount of evangelical and highly conservative votes, votes that typically when to Ginagrich, however Romney has still remained, abliet shakily, the front-runner position.
How has he remained this way? well firstly a bit of luck, after disappointing performances in the caucus states of Colorado and Minisota, he managed to turn his campaign around to win in both Arizona and Missori primaries. How did he do this, well basically because when it comes down to it, Romney has the supiror campaign, and resources, which really is essential for the primaries, with many more people voting than in the caucus states (Maine anyone). Also Arizona and Missori were, just on face value, more likely to go to Romney than Santorium, But Santorium periodically gaining is actually conversely helping Romney. After Santorium peaking, Romeny obviously dop in the polls, thus lowering expectations, which his campaign is now doing rather excellently, and so when his campaigning returns, as it always does when the momentum, which is having an especially short-life span this election cycle. However by exceeding exceptions means that Romney gets a huge postitive boost going into super tuesday, especially after his recent win in the small, but caucus state, which Romney is performing poorly in, of Washington.
All this seems like Romney is doing really well, in part due to good campaigning, but more due to good luck. Firstly Gingrich, just by staying in the competition, is a serious boost to Romney's campaign. Although Santorium is stealing a lot of Gingrich's voters, he still hasn't got all of the, and Gingrich is so much closer to Santorium than to Romney, and almost his entire share would go to Santorium. THis also means that Gingrich and to a certain extent Paul are actively campaigning and trying to steal from Santorium, making it possible for Romney to win, even if he does have this 'celling'.
So what does this mean for the rest of the race? Well at the moment I'd wager that Romney will still eventually win the nomination, and if he manages to scrape a win in Iowa, I'd give him very good odds, however I think its going to be a rocky race and quite possibly come down to a battle of the delegates at the convention. Unless either Paul or Gingrich drops out, Santorum will still probably continue to pick up the caucus states, and other very conservative states, as his campaign, lacking funds, is definitely more the grass-roots campaign which is suited to the caucus states, however these states do not have very many delegates, especially not pledged delegates, so if it does get down to a delegate war, Romney will again have to advantage, so although it might be a long struggle, I think it might go down to Romney.
How has he remained this way? well firstly a bit of luck, after disappointing performances in the caucus states of Colorado and Minisota, he managed to turn his campaign around to win in both Arizona and Missori primaries. How did he do this, well basically because when it comes down to it, Romney has the supiror campaign, and resources, which really is essential for the primaries, with many more people voting than in the caucus states (Maine anyone). Also Arizona and Missori were, just on face value, more likely to go to Romney than Santorium, But Santorium periodically gaining is actually conversely helping Romney. After Santorium peaking, Romeny obviously dop in the polls, thus lowering expectations, which his campaign is now doing rather excellently, and so when his campaigning returns, as it always does when the momentum, which is having an especially short-life span this election cycle. However by exceeding exceptions means that Romney gets a huge postitive boost going into super tuesday, especially after his recent win in the small, but caucus state, which Romney is performing poorly in, of Washington.
All this seems like Romney is doing really well, in part due to good campaigning, but more due to good luck. Firstly Gingrich, just by staying in the competition, is a serious boost to Romney's campaign. Although Santorium is stealing a lot of Gingrich's voters, he still hasn't got all of the, and Gingrich is so much closer to Santorium than to Romney, and almost his entire share would go to Santorium. THis also means that Gingrich and to a certain extent Paul are actively campaigning and trying to steal from Santorium, making it possible for Romney to win, even if he does have this 'celling'.
So what does this mean for the rest of the race? Well at the moment I'd wager that Romney will still eventually win the nomination, and if he manages to scrape a win in Iowa, I'd give him very good odds, however I think its going to be a rocky race and quite possibly come down to a battle of the delegates at the convention. Unless either Paul or Gingrich drops out, Santorum will still probably continue to pick up the caucus states, and other very conservative states, as his campaign, lacking funds, is definitely more the grass-roots campaign which is suited to the caucus states, however these states do not have very many delegates, especially not pledged delegates, so if it does get down to a delegate war, Romney will again have to advantage, so although it might be a long struggle, I think it might go down to Romney.
early uni life
Ack ack ack, while I enjoy it, blogging is getting exceedingly difficult to do with my new 'busy' life, I don't really have any time to blog. I might start bringing my laptop to uni in which case I will get a chance to blog on the bus, but for now I only blog whilst watching TV, like actually on TV, which I only really do once a week, which I'm doing now. What this means, is that until I change I'm going to be doing a lot of really dumping post.
anyway I thought I'd actually fo what most people do when they blog, and actually talk about my life aka my first week of uni. Uni is part fun, part boring, and actually rather like high school. We go through material faste,r but thats probably because lectures are like, only lectures, there no class time dedicated to working on stuff, or or that random time-killing thing that we managed to do in high school, so I guess it is slightly harder, but its also far more interesting. Class sizes are obviously much much bigger, and has heaps more guys, I also kinda miss the really collaborative environment of NSG, but thats probably just because of well smaller classes, and the fact that we all new each other for 6 years.
The campus is also much bigger, and obviously the compute is longer but at the moment kind of bearable. I think I've finally managed to find my way around the campus completely, after finding having my compulsory getting completely lost experience. Actually it wasn't completely my fault, I had a lecture in the chemical sciences building, and I had a 2 hour gap between lectures so I decided to get to the lecture theatre a bit early, luckily I did because the classroom was M18, which is what it said on my timetable but the building code was something like F10 so I was wondering around looking for M18, until I realised that I was on the wrong side of campus, so I rushed in the rain, to tje correct building, and even managed to find the correct room. I got inside, and was pleasantly surprised that the class wasn't packed like the rest of my classes, until I started to get freaked out that I was in the wrong class a couple of minutes later and asked the person next to me, who was reading a law book. Turned out he was also looking for my class and was doing engineering-law. So all was good right, except the lecturer still hadn't turned up yet, no problem, he's just running late right, I started talking to the same person next to me, until 25minutes in, we decided that it really was weird that the lecturer hadn't turned up yet, thus we looked up to make sure the class hadn't been cancelled, turned out the class wasn't cancelled, but had been moved, to the lecture theatre right on the other end of campus. No problem right, the first class of every other class we didn't do anything important, just went through administrative details so nothing important, not quite 5 very puffed minutes later we found ourself in the back of the right lecture theatre, sitting down and having out feet fall asleep right at the back of he only class that did stuff on the first lecture, with a guy with a very scary Russian accent. And no matter how nice the guy actually is I don't think I can ever actually get past my first impression of him being a really strict Russian slave driver teacher/KGB agent. However that being said, it is actually kind of fun, although I'm enjoying some of my other subjects a bit more, we got to build a catapult in Engg1000! A catapult! admittedly it was supposed to work in a war zone, and I definitely wouldn't be using it, but then again, who arms their troops with paddle pop sticks and ballons going into a warzone?
Anyway uni is fun, although tiring, and I have no idea how I'm going to cope this weeks with labs and tutes cutting into my lovely long breaks, and making me stay at uni later, still should be fun
anyway I thought I'd actually fo what most people do when they blog, and actually talk about my life aka my first week of uni. Uni is part fun, part boring, and actually rather like high school. We go through material faste,r but thats probably because lectures are like, only lectures, there no class time dedicated to working on stuff, or or that random time-killing thing that we managed to do in high school, so I guess it is slightly harder, but its also far more interesting. Class sizes are obviously much much bigger, and has heaps more guys, I also kinda miss the really collaborative environment of NSG, but thats probably just because of well smaller classes, and the fact that we all new each other for 6 years.
The campus is also much bigger, and obviously the compute is longer but at the moment kind of bearable. I think I've finally managed to find my way around the campus completely, after finding having my compulsory getting completely lost experience. Actually it wasn't completely my fault, I had a lecture in the chemical sciences building, and I had a 2 hour gap between lectures so I decided to get to the lecture theatre a bit early, luckily I did because the classroom was M18, which is what it said on my timetable but the building code was something like F10 so I was wondering around looking for M18, until I realised that I was on the wrong side of campus, so I rushed in the rain, to tje correct building, and even managed to find the correct room. I got inside, and was pleasantly surprised that the class wasn't packed like the rest of my classes, until I started to get freaked out that I was in the wrong class a couple of minutes later and asked the person next to me, who was reading a law book. Turned out he was also looking for my class and was doing engineering-law. So all was good right, except the lecturer still hadn't turned up yet, no problem, he's just running late right, I started talking to the same person next to me, until 25minutes in, we decided that it really was weird that the lecturer hadn't turned up yet, thus we looked up to make sure the class hadn't been cancelled, turned out the class wasn't cancelled, but had been moved, to the lecture theatre right on the other end of campus. No problem right, the first class of every other class we didn't do anything important, just went through administrative details so nothing important, not quite 5 very puffed minutes later we found ourself in the back of the right lecture theatre, sitting down and having out feet fall asleep right at the back of he only class that did stuff on the first lecture, with a guy with a very scary Russian accent. And no matter how nice the guy actually is I don't think I can ever actually get past my first impression of him being a really strict Russian slave driver teacher/KGB agent. However that being said, it is actually kind of fun, although I'm enjoying some of my other subjects a bit more, we got to build a catapult in Engg1000! A catapult! admittedly it was supposed to work in a war zone, and I definitely wouldn't be using it, but then again, who arms their troops with paddle pop sticks and ballons going into a warzone?
Anyway uni is fun, although tiring, and I have no idea how I'm going to cope this weeks with labs and tutes cutting into my lovely long breaks, and making me stay at uni later, still should be fun
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