If you pay US taxes, you might be interested in this piece from Salon about getting rid of their military academies (West Point, Naval, Air Force, and Coast Guard Academies). I had sort of drunk the Kool-Aid that these were worthwhile and produce good officers, and so it was, at the least, a very different perspective. And it's written by a full professor at one of these academies.
My last post mentioned Scott Aaronson's feelings on sexism and feminism, and now I find myself trying to find women to invite to a workshop I'm organizing. Partly it's sad how hard it is to come up with anyone, and partly I worry because sometimes I find myself thinking about whether some given candidate is attractive. Am I sexist for thinking about such a thing or am I a feminist because I admit to having such thoughts but try not to let them affect any decisions?
7 comments:
That article was revelatory. I had no idea the average test scores, etc. were so poor at the academies - when I was growing up I'd always heard that they were tremendously elite and selective, and I'd never thought to check otherwise. I've known a couple of people who went through West Point and were very impressive, feeding into this idea.
Doug: Yes, me too...I've known a few pretty upstanding folks come through. In fact, I actually spent a bit of time at one the academies a long while back.
Female physicist here - we check you guys out all the time, especially when your talks suck and we forgot to bring something to read. You may not know this because we usually don't comment on your appearance out loud (it could be because we are considerate creatures or it could be because there are never any other women around). So don't feel bad, and do invite some women to your conference, regardless of their attractiveness.
Tigerlily: Your pseudonym threw me for a bit of a loop, having associated it with, apparently, another physicist (a male). But glad to have read your comment. As for the invites, two females invited and, so far, one acceptance!
Proud of you, Angry! Keep up the good work.
Good luck.
off-the-shoulder angriness is new black in haute couture catwalk tenure dress do I look fat in my labcoat baby? What about from the side. I got a solid E+ on that "performing simple tasks with slide calliper" retake after I failed the other one. I'd tighten your nuts with it if you wanted me to
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