International Women’s Day

This past week, leading up to International Women’s Day (today), the Canada Aviation and Space Museum tweeted about some Canadian women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) jobs.

Julie Payette (astronaut) 1st Cdn on #ISS. She is an electrical & computer Eng, researcher & pilot #IWD #STEM

— Av & Space Museum (@avspacemuseum) March 7, 2013

Elsie MacGill (aeronautical eng.) was the 1st woman aircraft designer in the world #IWD #STEM

— Av & Space Museum (@avspacemuseum) March 6, 2013

Roberta Bondar (neurologist/astronaut) 1st neurologist in space & Cd’s 1st female astronaut in space (1992) #IWD #STEM

— Av & Space Museum (@avspacemuseum) March 5, 2013

While I don’t work in STEM myself, I feel strongly that girls should be encouraged to go into these fields. One of the best ways to do that is to make them aware of all the trailblazers who have gone before. Incidentally, this was the premise of last night’s episode of The Big Bang Theory. The joke was that the female scientists spoke to a classroom full of girls on the phone from Disneyland, where they were dressed as princesses and fighting over who got to be Cinderella.

I remember when Roberta Bondar went to space. I was in Grade 7 at the time. Because she was the first Canadian woman astronaut, it made the news and was talked about at school. Other than that, though, I didn’t hear a lot about women in STEM jobs growing up. My own mother was a teacher and then a librarian, and I credit her with my lifelong love of books and writing. Aunts, grandmothers, female friends of our family — if they worked outside the home, they were secretaries, hairdressers or store clerks.

I loved to read and write, but from a young age, I was also very interested in computers. I was good with them, too. I took programming in high school, and each year there were fewer and fewer girls in the class. In the most advanced class, there was just one other in a group of 20 students. And the teacher, a middle-aged man, definitely treated the two of us differently than the boys — in the handsy, borderline-inappropriate way that really discourages girls from doing things like staying after school for extra instruction.

When I got to university, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life yet. My school required first-year students to take at least two math/science credits and two arts/humanities credits. So I took the entry-level courses in algebra, computer science, English, film studies and women’s studies. I enjoyed comp sci, but again, there were very few young women in that room. And I was shy. I thought about taking more courses in my subsequent years, but I baulked at the idea of doing group projects with all men.

So in second year, I declared a combined major in English and women’s studies, and that’s the degree I got. Sexual politics weren’t the only reason for that choice, but they were a factor.

Setting aside the fact that I never actually went into a career related to my degree, I wonder if I would have had the courage to pursue comp sci if I had had different role models as a child, or if I had had better experiences in high school computer classes. (Not that the teachers were all pervy; just the one.)

One of my best friends is an actuary and very successful in her field, and she and I came from very similar backgrounds, right down to what our parents did for a living, and have similar minds (in my opinion; she might not agree with that). Why did she take her aptitude for math and statistics to its natural conclusion, while I didn’t? Was it the influence of one or more teachers in the K-12 years, determined by pure chance? Was it that she was involved in Girl Guides? Or was I just overly hung up on the gender of classmates, something that seems not to have bothered her?

All kids need to be encouraged to pursue whatever job they think they’d like and to be aware of all the different options. But girls, in particular, need to know that there are and have been many successful women in fields that are traditionally male dominated. As I said last week, I am so disheartened by the thought that any child would name a reality TV star as their role model, because in general, in my opinion, those people are not modelling values or behaviour that are good for society as a whole. Ditto for a large portion of entertainers. But brains? Innovation? Critical thinking? Environmental awareness? These are qualities we need, and need to promote, for the continued health and strength of our whole species.

Looking to the stars

Photo by Jenn Deering Davis, used under Creative Commons

My local paper recently ran a story about a teenage girl, Celeste Templeman, who died of a brain tumour. One of her dying wishes was to meet a number of entertainment stars, including Anne Hathaway, Celine Dion and Robin Williams. Each of these celebrities granted her request, either by phone, Skype or emailed video greetings.

I have such mixed feelings about this.

On one hand, it’s great that these celebrities responded to this girl. The article doesn’t say how they were contacted but there isn’t any mention of a group like the Make a Wish Foundation being involved, so ostensibly the family contacted the celebrities independently — possibly through social media, since that’s the easiest way to get a message to anyone you don’t know nowadays.

On the other hand, I can’t help being sadly disappointed that this is how a young person chose to spend the end of her life. When she found out she only had weeks left, Celeste’s mother told her she could do anything she wanted. “Top of the teenager’s bucket list were celebrities she was desperate to meet,” the newspaper article says. Desperate to meet. This kid was given carte blanche (well, I’m sure budget was a factor, but still) and her number one priority is to talk to famous people. The article doesn’t mention a single other item on the so-called bucket list.

What planet is that?

I saw this picture over on National Geographic today, and I was like, Holy crap! That can’t be real!

It looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. But actually, it’s an underground cave in Mexico, full of selenite crystals. Amazing, isn’t it?

I love Carl Sagan

It was love at first sight. It happened just last year. I popped the Cosmos DVD into the player, and before the first episode was finished, I was smitten. Carl Sagan had a way of conveying his awe and fascination about the universe, his respect for its magnitude and his admiration for its complexity, so vividly that the viewer can’t help but feel the same way.

The average person probably doesn’t think much about how tiny our planet is when viewed in the context of the universe as a whole. From the point of view of a human on the surface, the Earth is massive. It wasn’t until our space probes could go out and take pictures from very far away — well, far to us — that we could begin to comprehend that our planet is like “a speck of dust, floating in a sunbeam.”

This short animation illustrates one of Sagan’s memorable speeches about Earth as a “pale blue dot”:

To me, what Sagan is saying is that if that teeny, tiny speck is teeming with life and love and culture and inventions and wars and all that other stuff, just imagine how much could be going on in the rest of the universe! He isn’t saying that Earth is insignificant because it’s small. He’s pointing out that the entire history of humanity (up till very, very recently) — which is a crapload of stuff — has all taken place on one pale blue dot. But now we’re no longer confined to that dot. We know we’re part of something much bigger and that opens up an unfathomable amount of potential. What might we find as we begin to learn about what’s out there? What might we discover? What might we do? Who knows!

The possibilities are truly endless. That’s the message I take away from Sagan’s pale blue dot. And that’s why I love him.

So that’s what my hair would look like in space

A lot of the things I tweet and post about are things I wish were required reading/viewing for kids. (Too bad thekidshouldseethis.com is already taken.) Here’s a prime example: a 25-minute video tour of the International Space Station, recorded by astronaut Sunita Williams on her last day as commander of the station in November of last year.

Watching this, I felt a sense of awe — almost bordering on jealousy — at the idea of looking down every day and seeing the entire earth outside the window, and of zipping around like Superman in the weightlessness of space. I would truly love to experience that myself. That being said, the ISS is pretty claustrophobic. The astronauts sleep in little closets, almost like coffins, the very sight of which made me a little twitchy. And don’t even get me started on the close quarters of the Soyuz vehicle that carries crew members to and from Earth. The whole thing is an interesting blend of freedom and restriction.

Oh, and I really don’t care for the idea of peeing into a vacuum hose.

Money off for good behaviour

Photo by Flickr user Chellbie. Used under Creative Commons License

Last week I read about the Washingon state restaurant that gave a discount to a family with well-behaved kids. There seem to be two camps in the responses to this:

1. “Hurrah!”

2. “Since when do you get rewarded for basic parenting?”

I understand the rationale behind #2, but I have to side with #1 on this. I applaud this restaurant and any other businesses who go out of their way to recognize good behaviour in kids. In theory, we shouldn’t have to do it, but the reality (however disheartening)- is that a heck of a lot of kids are badly behaved. Why not throw a bone to the ones who aren’t, and their parents too?

Maybe I should have started this post with a disclaimer: I don’t have kids of my own and I never will. So maybe you’ll argue that I don’t have any right to an opinion on this subject either way, as I have no idea how hard it is to be a parent. That’s true; I don’t. But if it’s difficult (and I have no doubt that it is), isn’t that all the more reason to encourage the brave souls who are somehow getting it right?

To me, it comes down to respect for other people. That’s what’s lacking in those kids who push and jostle other customers, who don’t say “please” or “thank you,” who don’t use their inside voices — those kids haven’t been taught or encouraged to respect their fellow patrons or the wait staff. Maybe their parents are trying but not quite succeeding, or maybe they don’t have that respect themselves. This particular restaurant chose to let the King family know that their demonstration of respect was noticed and appreciated (and hey, if the discount encourages the Kings to eat there again, it’s a win-win).

Not to get all “pay it forward” on you, but don’t you think positive reinforcement is a wonderful thing?

Colouring on the walls

Although I bought these posters (from Ron Guyatt on Etsy) back in June, I only just got around to framing and hanging them recently. These are three of the most remarkable geological features on Mars — the Valles Marineris, the Seven Sisters, and Olympus Mons. They make me smile every time I walk down the hall, much more than the black and white photos of New York that previously hung there. Sometimes they make me think of the Sarcastic Rover and then I smile some more.

And here’s another wall in my home:

I’m not really sure about this yet. I wanted to try something different and colourful, and I wanted to incorporate artwork that the Ns have made for me. The mirrors are from Ikea, part of the ongoing effort to make the apartment brighter. Mirrors are supposed to bounce light around, right? Maybe you’re not supposed to put them up so high.