Hic svnt leones

Hic svnt Leones (here be lions)...… ....here be my sharing of crappy obsessions my acquaintances don't care about: cats, science, complains about teaching, music, cooking, feminism, languages, distant lands.... ...I'm an almost ok person in real life, in Madrid in my late 30's, but one will never tell by this...

[hcsvntleones]

Bach vermut

The program includes: food tasting + an organ Bach concert + vermouth+ jazz bands playing Bach

So, this might be amazingly cool or boring. Not sure. But I'm going to check it out tomorrow. Who knows? I've never seen an organ playing.....

[hcsvntleones]

Fideua for lunch!!!

[hcsvntleones]

Good morning Mediterráneo

[hcsvntleones]

Have I told you how great is this?

[scientific-women]

Do I Look Young To You?

So much of what we talk about here at Tenure, She Wrote is about straddling the often-conflicting expectations of the academic workplace and cultural pressures outside of work. At work we often equ…

So much of what we talk about here at Tenure, She Wrote is about straddling the often-conflicting expectations of the academic workplace and cultural pressures outside of work. At work we often equate age and expertise, masculinity with leadership. Outside of work, looking young is usually seen as a good thing.

A few weeks ago, there was a discussion over on twitter – and followed up on by @drugmonkeyblog – on looking young as a scientist*. Or rather, on people commenting on your age and making assumptions about your age, based on how you look. In terms of action, Drug Monkey hits the nail on the head – just don’t do it. Keep your opinion to yourself.

The issue I want to discuss is this: Why is this a problem at all?

I get pretty seriously annoyed when I’m told I look young, quickly followed by how much I’ll love it when I’m older.  (Twenty-five is young, but it sure ain’t 16.  And it doesn’t help that I’m short.)  A few months ago I was at the University of Chicago hospital with my Field Museum lab supervisor, watching the CT scanning of the skull of Magdalenian Woman.  One of the health professionals there takes a look at my friend and me and says: “What are you doing here?!  You look like you should be in high school!”

I felt dismissed, devalued.  Then it occurred to me that were I in high school, he should be even more impressed that I was there.  The young are far underestimated, and being told you’re young is a backhanded compliment at best.  ”I don’t think you’re competent…but you look great!” 

Seriously, I can’t wait for the day I’m completely gray.  But from the sounds of this article, older women aren’t taken any more seriously.

[hcsvntleones]

Great article. Great blog

[hcsvntleones]

I got a life

The switch was last summer. I left Madrid very burn out, after 2 years of economic and work related stress and very lonely there. I was on vacations for a month, back with my family, and something had changed. I missed Madrid, rude waitress and all, I missed the people I was getting to know, I didn’t fit so well back home. I felt lucky to be able to come back.

Madrid had gotten me, I realised I enjoyed my life there very much, and that had nothing to be with work, not with my job, not with Reilly finally getting a job, not with getting to the end of month, the reason of moving, the reason of every little decision when living on crisis……

This year I finally got a life beyond my job. I feel like a Wall Street yuppie discovering the important things in life, 80's Hollywood philosophy. I didn’t even need cancer to change my life priotities. I just needed to be able to pay the electric bill. They always miss that part on the movies.

[koryos]

Dominance Behavior in Canids

I didn’t really even WANT to make a post about this.

The alpha-beta-omega model of wolf packs is dead in scientific literature, hammered into the ground, so to speak, and it’s been dead for over ten years. So why am I still hearing about it on TV and reading about it in articles? Why are popular dog trainers that encourage you to “be the alpha” still taken seriously?

I think the unfortunate truth is that the idea that there are strong and ferocious leaders in wolf packs and that you, too, can take on that role with your dog is just somehow appealing to people. Almost romantic, in the older sense of the word. And because of this, it makes money. It sells werewolf media. It sells dog training classes. Educational science channels that have no business promoting this false ideology keep it on board because it gets people watching.

If you couldn’t tell, I’m pretty fed up with the whole thing.

Okay, let’s talk about dominance, particularly what the word even means, because popular media does a terrible job of explaining it.

Read more…

[hcsvntleones]

We are all blind by the alpha-male theory

[hcsvntleones]

Where am I? Here is a map, summer vacation edition

[hcsvntleones]

yes, I’m using my vacation time to enjoy looking around the supermarket….a typical Spanish hobby, as I’ve been told by several foreign friends ;)

[hcsvntleones]

Also, in Wonders of Marketing, most packaging award

[hcsvntleones]

Today, in Wonders of Marketing: introducing Longanizo, Chorizo and Morcillo, dress as a basketball team….. and maybe a bit racist…just maybe

P.S. maybe a bit sexist too, since morcilla and longaniza are feminim terms…but I guess we were lucky to be left out of this stupid idea

[hcsvntleones]

Squirrol hunting

[hcsvntleones]

Good morning carob (Ceratonia siliqua). Good morning pine trees. Good morning Mediterranean

[hcsvntleones]

Family vacation conversations or getting sentimental at the mall

Me: We bought it with my mother in Carrefour last summer

Reilly: Did she cried that day?

Me: Was it a sentimental days? I can't remember...but it might be, my family has certainly cried several times in that same Carrefour .....

[hcsvntleones]

Vacations for everyone!!

[dumbledoresarmy-againstbigotry]

My response to the “I am not a feminist” internet phenomenon…. First of all, it’s clear you don’t know what feminism is. But I’m not going to explain it to you. You can google it. To quote an old friend, “I’m not the feminist babysitter.” But here is what I think you should know. You’re insulting every woman who was forcibly restrained in a jail cell with a feeding tube down her throat for your right to vote, less than 100 years ago. You’re degrading every woman who has accessed a rape crisis center, which wouldn’t exist without the feminist movement. You’re undermining every woman who fought to make marital rape a crime (it was legal until 1993). You’re spitting on the legacy of every woman who fought for women to be allowed to own property (1848). For the abolition of slavery and the rise of the labor union. For the right to divorce. For women to be allowed to have access to birth control (Comstock laws). For middle and upper class women to be allowed to work outside the home (poor women have always worked outside the home). To make domestic violence a crime in the US (It is very much legal in many parts of the world). To make workplace sexual harassment a crime. In short, you know not what you speak of. You reap the rewards of these women’s sacrifices every day of your life. When you grin with your cutsey sign about how you’re not a feminist, you ignorantly spit on the sacred struggle of the past 200 years. You bite the hand that has fed you freedom, safety, and a voice. In short, kiss my ass, you ignorant little jerks.”

Libby Anne (via oatmeal47)

[hcsvntleones]

You know you live with the right person when you unintentionally say how nice would be to have an icecream and he leaves the AC shelter and gets you one.....