Tales of a 3rd Grade Nothing...or Why I Study Science

When I was in 3rd grade my school did a "wax museum." Now, I am no means under the impression that my elementary school was special in any way, so you might have had one of these too. If you don't know what it is then I can tell you. All the elementary school teachers reading this get your pens and paper out because this new 21 year old is about to tell you about one of the most enlightening experiences that I had as a young girl child. Anyway, the concept of the wax museum is that each student would dress up as a famous figure from history. It can be any person from any time period. It was like one of the coolest things I ever did in elementary school.

I think that if I had to pinpoint why I am pursuing a career in science, the 3rd grade wax museum is the one event that I would tell you about. Marie Curie is the one person I would tell you about. You see, before Marie Curie I was mad interested in space. I still am but not nearly to the degree that I am interested in Biochemistry. Before Marie Curie I wanted to study astronomy. Before Marie Curie my third grade reading consisted solely of nonfiction books about space. I was just that cool. Not to say that space isn't cool, space is way cool, I just like chemistry more.

But anyway, back to the point. When I was in third grade I had a great internal struggle in making my decision of who I wanted to be for the wax museum. I didn't want to go with an obvious choice like Amelia Earhart or Sacajawea, besides they were both taken, but at the same time there are not a lot of famous women that you discuss that early (which is a problem all itself). But after my dad jokingly suggested Pancho Villa (because we are Mexican), he threw out Marie Curie. I had no idea who she was, but after my dad told me that she was famous scientist I was sold.

I checked out like every small child's book I could find that mentioned Marie Curie (there aren't that many) and then I resorted to the internet. I don't quite remember what you learn science wise up to third grade, but I can guarantee that Radium and Marie Curie were not on the subject list. But they should be. I think Marie Curie should be taught in elementary schools as somebody just as important as Einstein. Without Marie Curie, I probably wouldn't be a science major (and Rosalind Franklin is probably why I am a biochemistry major specifically, but that is another blog post).

Marie Curie is the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, and the only person to have two Nobel Prizes in different science fields. She pioneered the field of radioactivity and isotope isolation. She discovered not one, but two elements (polonium and radium), and founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and in Warsaw. So far, she is he only woman to be buried in the Pantheon, Paris due to her own accomplishments.

Now, I am not a chemist. I do biochemistry now (and probably biochemistry when I hopefully go to graduate school next year), but it was really my idolization of Marie Curie that originally got me set on getting a degree in something where I would have to take a lot of chemistry. Something where I would have to learn how the world works on a small scale. I just chose a more biological side than a physical side. But the reasons for that can come in another blog post (one entitled: Avenging Rosalind Franklin).

Right now, we have a lack of women going into the sciences. And I really think part of that stems from the fact that in early education there are a lack of female role models in the sciences. We focus so much on the men in those fields that there doesn't seem to be a place for women. I think one way to help promote the sciences in young women would be to teach about the contributions of Marie Curie and not just the contributions of Einstein and Edison. 

Emmy Reactions: 1 Day Later

5 things concerning Emmy Nominations:
1. The Best Comedy Field
I have lots of problems with this. The first and foremost being that The Big Bang Theory is considered by the Emmy voters to still be worthy of a Best Comedy nom. Like it hasn't even been funny since Season 3. Modern Family is also very uneven. I wouldn't have nominated it at all. And I would also replace the 30 Rock or the Curb Your Enthusiasm nominations for Louie, Parks and Rec, and Community. I am happy to see Veep and Girls up there since I do think that they are probably the best new comedies of the season and two of the best shows on television now.

2. Acting Noms in Comedy
I wouldn't have Zooey Deschanel nominated. She isn't the best thing about her slightly better than good show. would have Laura Dern instead of Zooey Deschanel or Edie Falco. In the supporting actress, basically take away all the Modern Family noms. It is a bit ridiculous. And replace them with Zosia Mamet, Allison Brie, and Gillian Jacobs. And Audrey Plaza deserves to be up there as well. Also remove Kristin Wiig who is great in everything but SNL. Mayim Bialik is the best and only currently good thing about BBT so I am okay with her nom. I wouldn't have Don Cheadle, Jon Cryer, or Jim Parsons in the male field as noms. At least one of them (preferably Cryer) should have been replaced by Joel McHale. All the Modern Family noms should be replaced by Nick Offerman, Danny Pudi, Donald Glover, and Adam Scott in the supporting category.

3. Drama
I don't watch as much drama as I used to. But on the whole I am pretty pleased with the field. There are some acting noms I definitely disagree with (like Kathy Bates and Glenn Close) but on the whole I am happy with most of the nominations.

4. Miniseries or Movie
American Horror Story is awful. The fact that it got 17 nominations is a tragedy. Literally just a really awful TV show. And it isn't a miniseries at all. Game Change and Hatfields & McCoys both are not very stellar. Overall just a weak year in this category.

5. Reality Series
It is stupid that Amazing Race keeps getting nominated despite having slow, boring seasons. Dancing with the Stars, I don't think, is produced at a very high quality. Project Runway was really really bad these past two seasons, and The Voice needs a lot of fine tuning. Top Chef and So You Think You Can Dance are really the only deserving noms. I would put Work of Art and RuPaul's Drag Race both up there. Also, does Betty White have a deal with the devil? Just because she is on television does not mean that she needs to get nominated. Get Padma/Tom or better yet RuPaul up there instead. What a waste of a nomination. 

On Tosh.0 and Rape Jokes

I threw this together really quickly. I am sorry that it is not my best work. It is more of a "reactions" post than a logical post.

Okay, so you have obviously heard about all the talk about Tosh.0. And what I am going to say about it probably isn’t new at all. But whatever, I am going to talk about whatever I like to my tiny number of followers. So here it goes:

1. Rape jokes can be funny. But just like most jokes, they have to be told by funny people. Daniel Tosh isn’t really funny. Thus his rape jokes are not funny, just like all his other jokes aren’t funny. Louis CK, Patton Oswalt, and Sarah Silverman are funny. Thus their rape jokes are funny. Just like all their other jokes are funny.
2. Comedy shows aren’t open forums to discuss matters. If you do not like the performer then you can leave. 
3. On a more serious note, if you place rape on some kind of pedestal, then that is making it an even more taboo topic. It reinforces the belief that we cannot openly talk about sexual assault. Which then goes and makes it harder for victims of sexual assault to be able to converse about their experience. 
4. By placing sexual assault on a pedestal, we make it different from every other crime. Which means we treat the victims different than every other crime. We already treat rape differently than any other crime. When we hear about sexual assault we ask “What was she wearing? Was she drunk? Was she participating in overtly flirtatious behavior?” Making rape jokes is one way to treat rape like any other serious crime. 

In conclusion: Daniel Tosh was right and wrong, funny comedians can make funny jokes about rape. Daniel Tosh just isn’t a funny comedian.

SYTYCD 9: The Auditions/Vegas

In case you think I am just full of serious political stuff, I have decided to blog about So You Think You Can Dance. It is my favorite summer show and only through the power of the internet can I talk about it in length. So let's start with the auditions this year.

I actually really liked a lot of the auditions this year. I feel like they really cut down a lot on the number of "joke dancers." Typically, I think they have a lot more dancers featured that don't make it. And for maybe the first couple of seasons that is entertaining, but come season 9 it is time to show only the seriously good dancers. Also, I tend to like auditions because this is like the one time where we get to see a lot of hip-hop dancers. Too soon are they typically hand-waved away and cut.

It is no secret that SYTYCD has a strong contemporary bias but during the auditions there is a lot of hip-hop featured. Almost as many, if not more, hip-hop dancers are shown getting their ticket to Vegas as contemporary dancers. But there is a flip side to this as well, more hip-hop (and ballroom) dancers are sent to choreography before earning their ticket. If a contemporary dancer gives a heartwrenching solo, they automatically get sent through to Vegas. This year though, with Hampton "The Exorcist," Dragon House, and Shafeek Westbrook we saw hip-hop dancers with stellar solos go straight through Vegas. I would consider that an improvement on previous years.

But when you get to Vegas that unfortunate bias for contemporary dancers really begins to rear its head. It didn't seem that way at first though as tWitch and Comfort from season 4 started off Vegas week with hip-hop. I could not be more grateful for these two. Too often, Vegas hip-hop choreography is handed to NappTabs whose routines are typically tailored for contemporary dancers. I knew that this way, at least some of the really non-versatile contemporary dancers would get cut. And they did, we also lost some hip-hop guys who couldn't really pick up choreography (which isn't surprising, but that is for another essay). I was actually pretty happy with Vegas, until we got to the contemporary round. It was the last round and Mariah Spears, a krumper, was cut. Now, we didn't see the entire round, but from what we did see, there is no way she was as bad at that contemporary as some of the contemporary girls were in the hip-hop. SYTYCD hasn't seen a female hip-hop dancer in 4 years (since Comfort in S4) and it would have been really nice to see her make it through even if it was only for diversity sake. Too often, the US version of the show equates female dancer with contemporary dancer (or ballroom dancer), and that is something that I think that the show needs to fix.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the episodes. This will get better when the actual live shows start. It is hard to encapsulate like 4 weeks of show in a couple of paragraphs.

It makes me angry that in 2012 states are still trying to take away the basic right's of women. It angers me that it is 2012 and so many people believe that a fetus is more of a human than a woman. It angers me that these woman are being silenced in the Michigan House Floor. They are being silenced for saying the words "vagina" and "vasectomy." How long they are being silenced, they do not know.

I really enjoy Rep. Lisa Brown's speech to the Michigan House. I think that she lays out some beautiful points. If you didn't know, the first representative in the video, Rep. Barb Byrum, was not allowed to speak to defend her amendment to the bill which would require men to only be allowed to seek vasectomy's if the man's life was in danger.

The Wonders of Xanga or I Was an 8th Grade Weirdo

My sister and I kind of make fun of my brother all the time. He's kind of a weird kid. You know, the weird I am talking about. And if you don't I will describe it. If you went to high school anytime around the time that I did, you probably had those kids that were hardcore into anime and manga. They only read fantasy books and think that Christopher Paolini (or whatever young fantasy upstart exists at the time) can be likened to god. My brother isn't as extreme as they are, but he is about midway.

But at the same time, my brother reminds me a lot of myself when I was that age. I tell my sister that all the time. That we have no reason to be concerned about his social standing until he reaches 10th grade. That is about the time when I became like socially adept. I am still weird as fuck, but I also have really cool friends so I feel like I hit a really good median.

I say all this because recently I ran into my old Xanga. And promptly deleted it. It wasn't anything super embarrassing, but it reminded me of that person that I really just do not want to be. I like to think that I have grown since then. I don't settle so much and I have way more confidence.

Whatever.

What I am saying is that Xanga may be gone but I guess the angst isn't. Self-reflection 2012 style. Way less poetry and song lyrics and way more prose.

More insightful stuff to come. And hopefully more regular updates.

"You've Survived Death Roe" or Why I Am Pro-Choice

Today, I saw a flyer on a sandwich board that very boldly said "Death Roe." You could see that part from about 20 feet away, and being in the Agriculture School at the moment I thought it was something about fish (because we all know that roe and fish eggs are one in the same). So being that I was confused, I walked up to the flyer. That it when I realized that it actually said: "If you were born after 1973 then you've survived DEATH ROW." It was an advertisement for a meeting that the students for life club was having. Now when I see these kinds of things I get angry. And I feel that every woman should get angry at ads like this. Because that is just plain ignorant propaganda. But that one advertisement got me thinking of all the reasons I am pro-choice.

1. I am a living breathing human being. Not a clump of cells. Most women obtain abortions in the first trimester, and over half of all abortions occur before 8 weeks of pregnancy. At 8 weeks, the embryo isn't even considered a fetus. It doesn't look like a tiny baby that can experience pain and emotion, it looks like a squiggly alien.
2. I don't want doctors having the right to mislead patients. In Arizona, a doctor can intentionally leave out information when talking to parents regarding a fetuses health that may lead them to get an abortion (imagine being told that your child is healthy and not knowing until birth that they had a severe developmental disorder). 5 States (Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas) require doctors to LIE about a link between abortions and breast cancer. These laws were passed fairly recently. In 2003 though, the National Cancer Institute declared that abortion had no link to increased risk for breast cancer.
3. It's my body. It is my uterus. And it should be my decision. By not giving me a choice, you are essentially taking away my right to control what goes on in my own body. It is 2012. I should have full control over my own body.
4. Abortions are going to continue to happen regardless of the legality. I want any women that wishes to have an abortion to have the opportunity to have safe medical procedure. Back alley abortions are the dangerous abortions. Those are the abortions that lead to women dying. Abortions performed in a clinic with a certified medical doctor have no negative side effects.

Those are just four quick reasons. Sorry if it is a bit muddled. But it is literally ridiculous that it is 2012 and women are still fighting for the basic right to control what happens with their own bodies.