Open thread: om nom nom… circuitry
It’s time for another Geek Feminist party! This party is in honour of our new blogger Courtney, who also writes for From Austin to A&M. You might also remember Courtney from Amanda Hess’s interview at The Sexist. She guest-posted here in September.
Courtney, I hope you enjoy this edible circuit, at least to look at!
"555 LED flasher 1" by Windell Oskay, CC BY
Got any geek foodstuffs to share with Courtney?
This is also an open thread for discussion of older threads, threads you’d like to see, links you’d like to share, or other topics of your choice.
Courtney Stoker:
October 4th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
NOMNOMNOM. Thanks, Mary! I’m really excited to be here!
Vulpes Foxnik:
October 5th, 2010 at 12:49 am
Can someone explain to me why pin 4 (reset for the flip flop) and 5 (voltage control) are not connected as per specified astable diagram that National Semiconductor (the manufactures of the LM555CN )? Pin 4 is typically connected to the voltage source, and pin 5 typically is connected to a .1muF bipolar capacitor connected to the ground according to the recommended usage schematics.
MX:
October 5th, 2010 at 2:47 am
Geek foodstuffs and more geek foodstuffs at http://scienceblogs.com/bioephemera/2010/05/ms_humble_science_cookie_chef.php (follow the links. all of them. yes, really)
There’s also this brain cake, complete with EEG grid: http://mindhacks.com/2008/04/19/brain-cake/
The zombie food guide version is fun, tho somewhat less anatomically correct: http://is.gd/fLHCx
Adrienne:
October 5th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Okay so I’m biased (who isn’t) but my favorite blogger! Yaaay!!!!
Terri:
October 5th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Yeay Courtney!
In celebration, I offer up a link to a friend-of-a-friend’s new “geek sweets” page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Geek-Sweets/150990688271968
There’s a joke in here about sanity, blogging, feminism, and the Cthulhu cookies she posted, but I just don’t know what it is. ;)
Leigh Honeywell:
October 6th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
At hacklab.to’s 2nd birthday party we had an actual edible circuit cake. A friend of one of the members made it – there were silver-coated liquorice ropes with LEDs stuck across them. The silver foil was a good enough conductor, and totally edible!
The LEDs, not so much.
I’m bummed I don’t seem to have a photo of it online, it was so badass!
Elizabeth G.:
October 6th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
Is anyone going to be blogging for Geek Feminism at the Society of Women Engineers National Conference in Orlando next month?
MX:
October 7th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Just seen the article that edible circuit pic is from, and it’s too good not to pass on:
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/circuitsnacks
Mary:
October 7th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Not that I’m aware of… are you volunteering for a guest post or two?
Elizabeth G.:
October 8th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Sure! If you think I have the credentials.
Teresa:
October 9th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
http://geekfeminism.org/2010/10/05/connecting-with-female-characters-in-geek-television/
I left comments but they have not been approved yet, but I see other comments with the same date have been approved. Why?
Mary:
October 9th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
I’m not Courtney and I can’t tell you why. (ETA: and we don’t provide reasons for rejected comments usually, so don’t expect one, should your comment ultimately be rejected.) Our moderation policy allows us to be arbitrary, and certainly no one is promising that comments will be approved in submitted order.
If you don’t like that, don’t comment here, or make sure you keep copies of your comments to post somewhere else if you like in case they end up not being approved here.
KMF:
October 9th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
~ Note from Mary: KMF’s question has been promoted to the front page ~
I’m a longtime geek and feminist, but a newcomer to geek feminism. I’m glad I found this blog, because it gives me the opportunity to ask a question I’ve been pondering for a long time. I’ve seen a lot in geek feminist circles about anti-science bias in feminist circles, but what about anti-social science/humanities bias in geek ones?
Allow me to clarify: I do steampunk, listen to nerdcore rap, play online RPGs, and write (horrible) fanfiction. I love geek communities of all kinds. However, when it comes down to talking about women in geekdom, I feel a bit out of place. Although I love math and science (and have done a fair amount of coursework on the history of science), I’m not professionally or academically focused on a field in STEM. I’m a double major in music history and women’s studies. In geek communities, I sometimes see women’s studies (and other areas in the humanities) criticized or dismissed for being “anti-science,” and women in these fields called out for not wanting to be scientists.
I’m not anti-science (quite the opposite) and I didn’t buy into some sexist pressure against women in STEM. I just want to be a feminist historian. I also happen to be a geek. I feel that this shouldn’t be too difficult.
Advice?
Teresa:
October 9th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
I appreciate your response. I was just concerned because my response held a different opinion from the author’s (and was not rude or anything) and just wanted my side to be heard. Thank you.
Jenni:
October 11th, 2010 at 3:03 am
http://www.badreputation.org.uk/
Hi! Just a request that you put our new feminist group blogging project in your next linkspam? And/or that we swap links? We’ve got lots of geeky things going on, including our Alphabet of feminINism for all the lexophilic girl geeks out there, and upcoming posts on comics and sci-fi…
-J
xxx
Mary:
October 11th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
We don’t have a blogroll in any normal sense, so we can’t swap links. (Also, just a warning, about 99% of the comments we get asking “can we swap links” are from spammers, it took me a while to realise this was genuine.)
But promotion in the linkspam is fine!
Elizabeth G.:
October 11th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Hey KMF,
Just to clarify, when you say:
Do you mean that you don’t believe that there is sexist pressure against women in STEM?
About the anti science stuff in Feminist circles, I do believe that within a lot of online communities there is a feeling that science is good if and only if it reinforces feminist beliefs. That is the same way that every other fundamentalist group feel about science, “It is true because I know it is true and if you show me evidence to the contrary, you are wrong.” I think this is a problem.
Mary:
October 11th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
I read it as “I didn’t buy into sexist pressure not to be in STEM, I just didn’t/don’t want to be in STEM.”
KMF’s question has been promoted to the front page.
Anti-humanities sentiment in geekdom | Geek Feminism Blog:
October 11th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
[...] sort of an “Ask a Geek Feminist” bonus round, from KMF in the open thread (you can always ask questions in the open thread, but they may or may not be promoted to the front [...]
Jenni:
October 11th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Ha, that’d be great, thank you! Sympathy re: the spammers, we’ve been getting a lot of that too…
Bestest,
-J
D.:
October 13th, 2010 at 7:50 am
Hi- I am an IT project manager and work for a UN Agency and will soon start working on the building a grantee reporting database . We would like the whole DB creation process (gathering requirements, creating use cases, design, and build out) to follow Feminist principals (as much as we can) so I am looking for articles or books that speak to the intersection between feminism and ICT. I can seem to find many resources, would anyone know of any?
Thanks,
Debbie