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A new review article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) analyzes recent math testing data and concludes that the gender performance gap in mathematics is non-existent in the aggregate level from K-12 in the US (thanks No Child Left Behind for all the wealth of testing data we have for low cognitive level math!).  Summers’ now oft-quoted statement poses that the men have higher variability in intrinsic math ability, therefore there are more ‘high performing’ (and also ‘low performing’) men than women in math, and this difference is not a result of cultural/socialization issues: Directly addressing Summers’ hypothesis, the authors’ compare the high performing (99th percentile) population of students for a Minnesota state exam, showing some interesting differences by ethnicity. The ‘expected’ male:female ratio according to this hypothesis is 2.15, which actually correlates well with the White subgroup of this population (2.06).  However, the ratio is 0.91 for Asians: ie girls were actually more likely to score higher than boys, albeit by a small margin.  Girls score equally and in some cases better than boys from UK, Iceland, and Thailand for an international exam in 2003.  Variability analysis of various exams from various countries conclude that the variability in scores for girls and boys is… wait for it… variable.  (Some countries had negigible difference in score variability of girls vs boys, others had differences one way or the other, etc…)

Definitely some flaws in the article but interesting nonetheless.

Easily digestible summary on Science Daily.

Review article on PNAS (if you can’t see the full article and would like to read it shoot me an email)

I seriously thought that I’d have *more* time after I finished my dissertation to do fun things like crafting and blogging…  What was I THINKING???!!   In reality, I’ve been *crazy* busy with what feels like 4 jobs:  my real one that actually pays me something, finishing papers for my graduate work (yes, still), starting a food pantry, house hunting (stay tuned, I hope we will have exciting news in the near future), and oh, yeah, being a wife/daughter/friend/mentor…

Sigh.

I feel like I need to CONSTANTLY remind myself of a quote that Bruce often uses:

“Peace it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.”

Don’t get me wrong, life is GOOD… but man, sometimes it’s HARD to make time to get myself to that peaceful place.

Whew.  I feel better just getting that out.

Just got hold of the news that Obama is going to make a stem cell announcement on Monday via the Washington Post!!!!

Yayayay!!!!!

all of the horrible red ‘fragmented files’ slowly turning into pretty blue ‘contiguous files’…

Last night at some point after Obama was clearly in the lead, or had been declared the winner, or something, Ryan started complaining how cold he was…  except he was only wearing a t-shirt.  I handed him a white sweatshirt… but instead he defiantly reached for his red sweater and put it on.  After that I decided to wear my blue cal hoodie.

Although, I must say, getting the dreaded ‘blue screen’ three times on the laptop you need to use for dissertation editing for the next 10 days…  not a good blue.

I have to admit it is more a feeling of relief than anything else.  Even though all the polls were predicting an Obama win, I still had that little nagging worry in my mind…

Bonnie summed up my feelings quite well:  “You mean, you’re glad that Americans aren’t as racist as you thought?”

Me:  “Um, yes.”

Ryan and I got into this discussion tonight about race - re: Why are folks still identified by their minority ’side’?  ie. why is Obama ‘Black’ as opposed to ‘White’, when arguably he is ‘equally’ both?  What is the role of racial identity in our lives?  A few of my friends are ‘mixed’.  Are you supposed to ‘pick’ one?  How much does the perception of your race affect the way others treat you?  What if you look ‘white’ when you are not ‘white’?  What if Obama looked ‘white’ and not ‘black’?

Anyhoo, I digress.  Congrats to Obama!!!!!!

I just scarfed down almost the entire can of these:

Which SOMEBODY left in my bag this weekend!!!!  And, um… they were pretty dang tasty.  Spicy, salty, and yet sweet… hahahahha!!!!  Anyone going to visit Korea soon?  Or seen these anywhere in the US?  Let’s talk…

And, while we’re on the topic of yummy man parts… (As you can see I’m trying *very* hard not to get a million folks hitting my website on dirty google searches)  We celebrated Erica’s Bachelorette weekend in style.  In addition to the aforementioned snacks we also had the pleasure of enjoying the first inaugural ‘Speedo Sunday’ courtesy of WET rafting company - our two guides Jeff and Kyle were trying to convince all the other rafting guides to follow suit (haha, get it? I know, I know… couldn’t stop myself) but I don’t think it will *quite* catch on the way they were hoping…  but for your viewing pleasure I present Jeff in his hot pink speedo with yellow smiley faces, complete with www.raftwet.com screenprinted on the rear… oh and that’s me, Irene, and Erica (with her veil and matching hot pink ‘Bachelorette’ sash) along with Jeff’s gf in the raft (counter-clockwise from the bottom right).

The WET guides were pretty awesome though, speedos or not - I highly recommend!!

First - a random aside. Things sometimes just stick with you from childhood… sometimes literally stick.

For example: David M. I will always remember him as the Booger Man. He would pick his nose (blatantly) in class, squish them onto his desk, let them dry, pick them back off the desk, and then eat them. I had to share a desk with him. Not the same PART of the desk, mind you, but close enough that it was a bit much. I wondered if he did it JUST to gross me out. Then the teacher, my savior at that glorious moment, moved me to another table… (A kid had transferred out of our class, thank God, because for some reason I was ALWAYS seated next to David. In every class. For years. I swear the teachers all wanted to torture me. Either that or his last name came after mine in the alphabet. I like to think the former.) Let’s just say that solitary David, alone at his desk, didn’t stop his booger collection. He would, however, do a courtesy lick of his booger infested finger whenever I accidentally caught his eye.

The same teacher that finally put me out of my booger infested misery in the 5th grade also taught me a valuable lesson in semantics.

Me: “Can I go to the bathroom?”

Teacher (looking me straight in the eye, with an eyebrow lifted): “Well, I don’t know, Can you?”

Me: “Um… yes.. well… ah… May I go to the bathroom?”

Teacher: “Yes.”

Did I mention that said teacher also had a huge 7 foot long boa constrictor in our classroom that was named “Arnold Schwarzen-snaker?”

Ah… memories.

Which brings me to the point of my post.

I grew up with the LA Lakers. I grew up in the 80s, cheering on Magic, and Kareem. They were the OG dream team… and I think the years of the great Lakers vs. Celtics rivalry was one of the only times that my mom let us watch TV during dinner.

I mean, come on… even my mom likes the Lakers. And since she’s pretty awesome, that must mean the Lakers are awesome.

Then Michael Jordan came around… and I respect the fact that he’s a great player, but I never liked the way his flashy style changed the way basketball became all about the marketing of limited edition Jordan sneakers. I mean, I really can’t be one to dog on the collectors of shoes - my tokidoki collection is protection against that - but seriously - do they have to be so dang UGLY?!!!

Finally in college the Lakers came back, a la Kobe and Shaq. I still remember in 2001 it was the beginning of summer - the playoffs always coincided horribly with finals at school… and my parents called to tell me the Lakers were in the conference finals, and I needed to turn the TV on NOW. I was crashing at Joyce and Priya’s studio at the time, watching the games on their slightly fuzzy TV, trying to make out the tiny score in the corner as they played the Spurs. I think I fell in love with basketball all over again.

One of my college friends made me a bet back then - that in 10 years the Clippers would be better than the Lakers.

Too bad he will lose. Okay, okay, it hasn’t been 10 years. Yet.

Anyway.

My question is: May I just have a little joy in the fact that the Lakers are in the NBA finals again? And against the Celtics no less?!

Ryan calls me a fair weather fan. But seriously, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WATCH MY TEAM WHEN WE DON’T HAVE CABLE??!! hmmmm?!!!!