Scariness

I did not listen to Gov. Bobby Jindal's speech last night, nor have I read any of the recent articles about him. But the recent headlines and news radio snippets I've heard that mention "Jindal" and "President" in the same sentence are quite scary, if for no other reason that this. That crap will only pull our nation backwards on the educational and science trajectories, when we need to move forward.

Lilly Ledbetter, again

Here's a great op-ed piece from the NY Times on Lilly Ledbetter and other women who have fought to end gender discrimination in the workplace.

Lilly Ledbetter

Since Obama was sworn in, nearly every day has been - as a friend of mine remarked recently on her Facebook page - "like a liberal Christmas". Today, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act into law. Lilly Ledbetter filed a lawsuit against her employer, Goodyear, after she discovered she had been paid less than her male counterparts, but her lawsuit was thrown out because it was filed more than six months after the discrimination occurred. The Act makes it clear that the 180 day statue of limitations begins with each new discriminatory paycheck. I think that the 180 day statue of limitations is still too short, but at least it is now clear that it begins on pay day, not on the day the pay was agreed upon.

Of course, all Senate democrats voted for this Act, but it is especially noteworthy that all female republican senators also voted for it, whereas only one male republican voted in favor (Specter).

Homemade Minestrone

I don't usually cook with meat, but last week I got inspired after thumbing through the Joy of Cooking, and I decided to roast a chicken. Then this week I was about to throw the chicken carcass away when I stopped and thought "hey, I should make stock!" So I did, and the chicken stock actually turned out pretty well, so from it I made minestrone soup:



It is not too bad, if I do say so myself. I put in almost twice as many macaronis as the recipe called for (you can probably tell from the picture) because I like a lot of pasta in my minestrone. I also put in twice the fresh herbs, and a little less broth than the 10 cups the recipe said, so it is quite flavorful.

So. Today begins the last week of my 20s. I am slightly bummed, because I feel like as long as I'm 20-something I can still pretend I'm a kid sometimes. But it's gonna be hard to feel like a kid when I'm THIRTY. I was boosted a bit this morning by some lady at church asking me "how school was going", and when I mentioned I teach at Duke rather than take classes there she said "oh, you don't look old enough to be teaching!" (I've had this conversation with at least 4 people at church, and it always makes me feel better). So I guess as long as I don't look 30, maybe I can get away with continuing some of my 20-something habits. Like wearing a short skirt. According to some magazine or something I read somewhere once (Glamour? Washington Post fashion column?) only women under 30 should be wearing short skirts. At 30 you've supposedly reached some level of maturity that is above the teen/collegiate/20s-look-at-me-I'm-so-sexy look of short skirts. Well, that's a fashion rule I'm gonna break because my legs are too fabulous to not show off once in a while!

At last

After 8 long years, the abortion football has once again been thrown. Obama has repealed the Global Gag Rule. An excellent start in the process of undoing the damage of the past 8 years.

Women in Science

Two posts in a day, how 'bout that! Yesterday's New York Times had a great article on the problem of female shortage in the sciences. The article mentions that "President Obama might be able to change things significantly for young women in science — and young men — by signing an executive order that would provide added family leave and parental benefits to the recipients of federal grants, a huge pool of people that includes many research scientists." Wow! As a young woman who anticipates (well, hopes) to be seeking tenure and raising kids at the same time, I think that would be fabulous. This article states our plight quite well:

...expecting a young woman to sacrifice her reproductive fitness for the sake of career advancement is simply too much, and yet the structure of academic research, in which one must spend one’s 20s and early 30s as a poorly compensated and minimally empowered graduate student and postdoctoral fellow, and the remainder of one’s 30s and into the low 40s working madly to earn tenure, can demand exactly that.

Yes, these are the things that keep me up at night.

Snow!

I love snow! I really do - I think it's pretty and peaceful (although my opinion changes somewhat in treacherous driving conditions). I thought that moving to North Carolina meant no more snow (or least not enough snow to ever cover the ground), but looky what Madeline and I saw out our window this morning:



Yay! I wish I had some cross-country skis (it's just barely enough, I think), but running in it this evening will be fun, too. Hmm, I hope the other Godivans show up for our East Campus run! It is possible these southern folk don't feel the same way I do about running in the snow.

So exciting! Here is my first house experiencing its first snow (with me as homeowner, that is):



I don't own a snow shovel yet, but I think it'll be okay. The snow on the sidewalk is starting to melt already. Here is my neighbor's holly tree with berries and snow:



Here, I was trying to take a picture of the little sweetgum balls with snow caps:



I decided to stay home today and watch the inauguration. Two things that made me happy today: snow and the fact that BUSH IS FINALLY OUTTA THERE! Good riddance, too. I might leave my "Bush's Last Day" bumper sticker up for a while longer, just to prolong the celebration that he's GONE.

Haven't blogged in a while!

To the 3 people who actually check my blog every few days - sorry I haven't blogged in a while! I had a merry Christmas, did you? One of my Christmas gifts was, once again, a digital camera! Yay, now I can post recent pictures of better quality than the one above (that was taken w/ my minolta film camera - it's just not that good). Although, I've only used my new gift a little, so far. Need to put a bigger memory card in it, and my big memory card is somewhere in my closet. So anyway, here are some more pictures from the holidays - pre-digital camera.

Madeline looking creepy:




A red-tailed hawk that my cousin and I got really close to at Thanksgiving:





Life is good - I promise to write a more interesting post later!

Cute Couple

Excellent, excellent opinion piece. Excellent.

Thank you Olivia Judson! Dr. Judson, a darling, talented evolutionary biologist at the forefront of her field and author of "Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation" (one of my favorite books) has written an outstanding article on the Bush administration's assault on science. Amen! Also, I really must read Shulman's book that she mentions. This looks like a good book, too - I love the cover!

Hopefully the economy and war will not completely distract Obama from this important task of restoring credible science to government.

Reason #463 Why "Abstinence Only" Education is Stupid

Read this.

Raleigh Marathon

Here's a belated race report for the Raleigh Marathon! We dragged ourselves out of bed at 4:45 am, which was somewhat eased by "falling back" an hour and our 9:30 bedtime, but was still a bit tough. But I'm glad it was a 7 am start time, because by mile 20 it was getting quite warm for us middle-of-the-packers, and from that point on the course had almost no shade refuge. So here's me, Madelyn, and Kate a few minutes before the start (thanks Marathonfoto!):



Kate and Madelyn did the half-marathon, and both did very well! As I mentioned before, I finished in 4:05 - not the sub-4 I had hoped for, but I underestimated the hilliness, even after studying this elevation map:



See those big hills at miles 5 and 13-15? I powered up them, feeling strong and still maintaining a sub-9:00 pace. I only slowed down a little at the 17-18 mile hill. I was feeling way over-confident and trying to guess how big my PR would be. Then the course left the lovely shade and soft dirt road of Umstead State Park - we turned a corner and were suddenly on a concrete sidewalk heading uphill and straight into the sun (miles 19-20). I didn't hit a wall or anything, but just could not keep up my pace for the rest of the course - even on the slight downhill from mile 22-25. Mile 25 was awful - it doesn't look like a big hill on the course elevation map, but it sure felt steep and way longer than a mile (as mile 25 usually does). So I revised my goal to 4:05 and finished in 4:05:24. Not too bad I guess. So here I am within a few tenths a mile of the finish. See my Obama '08 shirt? I got lots of compliments on that! And no heckling!

The Land Slides Further

Check this out:

Obama adds symbolic NC victory to White House win

Obama had won North Carolina! It's the first time a democratic Presidential candidate has won the state since Carter won it in 1976. Isn't that crazy? That's crazy! In a good way of course! It makes me proud to be a North Carolinian. So that means Obama has 364 electoral votes to McCain's 162. GOPs, we CRUSHED you!!

To change the subject, Connie has asked for a race report - yes, I will post one later. In a nutshell, it was a tough race but it went well - ran a 4:05 marathon on a very hilly course.

Landslide Victory!

Hooray for President-Elect Obama!



Wow. IN, FL, OH, VA, CO, NV, NM?!?!?! Wow! This is amazing. Now us liberals can get to work with Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright to implement our radical socialist agenda! (just kidding, CG - do you realize how ridiculous you sound now?) In all seriousness this is a really exciting time in our country's history, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. He's definitely got his work cut out for him.

Man, Phillies winning the World Series, Obama and other dems winning office...this is shaping up to be the Autumn of Sandra Cookie!

PHILLIES WIN!!!!!!!!!!!

THE PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES ARE THE 2008 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited I don't know what to do with myself!!!

Let's go Phillies!!!

Monday night was a letdown, but at least it wasn't a loss. I am SUPER-EXCITED for tonight! I don't want to get my hopes up too high or jinx them...but I can taste a World Series victory!

Reason #893 to keep that ignorant bitch away from the White House

Someone on the ECOLOG listserve alerted us to this bit about Palin dissing fruit fly research. Here is the link to another blogger's post. Apparently she has no idea how important Drosophila research is for human genetics. Still, even if this were not the case, the fact that she thinks that funding for biological research is an "earmark" or a "pet project" really frosts Sandra Cookie's cookies!!!! Of course, she's a creationist, so what was I expecting?

Here are some quick facts

Click the link above. These are the sorts of problems that most Republicans ignore or won't fix because it's "too much government intervention and money". But just leaving it up to your precious free market isn't gonna fix these things. These problems ultimately affect us all as a nation, and thus as a nation we need to address them.

Equal Pay

I've gotta respond to CG's comments. He wrote: "But don't you think a woman that isn't pregnant is more valuable to an employer than one that is?" and "shouldn't women who choose to forgo pregnancy to focus on their career reap some reward (better job/pay) for the sacrifice they make?"

ABSOLUTELY NOT. Not only should men and women be paid equally for the same work, but parents and childless adults should also be paid equally for the same work. To "forgo pregnancy" does not necessarily mean you are going to be better or more productive at your job than someone with kids. In my field (biological sciences) I know male and female professors with children who manage to teach, publish, and get grants funded at the same (or even higher) rate and quality as professors without kids. So why would you pay them differently? Sure, it is true that there are scientist-parents who may have a brief "hole" in their publication record because of those 3 months they took for paid paternity/maternity leave. Unfortunately, this may affect their ability to get tenure or get grants funded (but fortunately many institutions are becoming more understanding of this). However, it should in no way whatsoever affect their salary!

In academic interviews it is against most institution's policies to ask if a candidate is married, has kids, is planning to have kids, etc. These policies are in place precisely because of the attitude you revealed in your comments in the earlier post. You cannot discriminate against someone based on these factors! And this is why it is best for an institution (or any place of employment) to have equal paternity/maternity leave policies - whether they hire a man or a woman, the possibility that that person will take parental leave is the same. You cannot decide against the woman because "she's a woman of childbearing age, so she'll probably take maternity leave". And actually, you cannot discriminate against men of childbearing age for the same reason either. I can understand the perspective of an employer who is short-staffed and needs someone to work full-time immediately with no extended leave on the horizon. But that employer has to realize that the possibility of extended leave is always there and is unpredictable. You never know if and when a employee will get cancer, have an accident, etc. and need an extended leave of absence. This is why you just have to hire the best candidate for the job and not discriminate based on perceived likelihood that a person will take parental, sick, or disability leave. Actually, I know a woman who, in the few years after landing her tenure-track position, had both cancer and a baby, and has still managed to stay at the top of her field.

All that being said, sure, it is possible that parenthood takes its toll on a person to the extent that their job performance suffers. But this is just one of many factors that can affect a person's job performance (divorce, chronic illness, depression, etc.) And that's why the only factors that should determine someone's salary or whether or not they get hired are their resume and job performance NOT their gender or family status.

In regard to the comment that a woman who isn't pregnant is more valuable than one who is, I look at my own place of employment. I am NO MORE VALUABLE to my employer than the two female teaching fellows currently expecting babies, or the male teaching fellow whose wife just gave birth last week (congratulations Jon and Celia!). Our supervisors at Duke University evaluate us only according to how well we do our jobs, not whether or not we take parental leave, an option open to all of us teaching fellows. It is unfortunate that not all employers practice such non-discrimination, and even more unfortunate that there are politicians do not support this mindset.

Economists' Policy Group for Women's Issues

Jesus Christ, it's 2008! Why haven't we made more progress? See this grade report on McCain and Obama. I absolutely do not understand why BOTH candidates, actually, do not have more As. But McCain and Palin's views here really top everything. They truly disgust me. Even our goddamn president voted for the VAWA. WTF???