Clarissa's Blog

So who’s into reality TV?

My favorite shows right now are:

1. Shark’s Tank,
2. The Profit with Marcus Lemonis,
3. Consumed, the new show about restaurants in New York.

These are all business-related, as you can see.

What are you watching?

It was probably a mistake to agree to write a piece on gender and space. I’m now getting caught up on the theory and, boy, does it suck or does it most horribly suck.

Time is male while space is female; skyscrapers are embodiments of the inflated male ego; the chaos of the city mimics “the uterine form of the female body”, and somebody shoot me right now to put me out of my misery. Bleh, bleh, and bleh some more.

NYTimes has published a good article about state-sponsored trolling. If you think it will never have any impact on your life, think again. And then read about the Columbia Chemical plant in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana.

At least, we are finally awakening to the reasons behind the trolling campaign:

Russia’s information war might be thought of as the biggest trolling operation in history, and its target is nothing less than the utility of the Internet as a democratic space.

Read, the article, get informed, and make sure that the trolls don’t start to control you.

OK, is the word for a series of two novels called a duology? That sounds weird to me but I can’t think of an alternative.

There is a huge hullabaloo about a column on sexual harassment in Science:

“His attention on your chest may be unwelcome, but you need his attention on your science and his best advice.”

With those words, Alice S. Huang, a senior faculty associate in biology at California Institute of Technology known for her pioneering research in molecular animal virology, and a regular columnist for Science, launched a wave of criticism Monday that resulted in the disappearance and subsequent retraction of her advice piece.

Everyone is piling on Huang but nobody is paying attention to the letter she was responding to. Here it is:

Dear Alice,

I just joined a new lab for my second postdoc. It’s a good lab. I’m happy with my project. I think it could really lead to some good results. My adviser is a good scientist, and he seems like a nice guy. Here’s the problem: whenever we meet in his office, I catch him trying to look down my shirt. Not that this matters, but he’s married. What should I do?

— Bothered

Got it? The only reason why Bothered is bothered is that the “nice guy” in question is married. This turns the situation around 180°. This is not a victim. This is somebody who is trying to sell the view of her chest for a marriage licence. “You are welcome to ogle unless you are married” is not  a position that provokes a whole lot of respect for this budding scholar. 

Huang did not take Bothered’s plight very seriously because Bothered is not that serious about it either. Huang responded in the same spirit and tone as the letter she was responding to, which is the most reasonable way of answering correspondence. 

And by God, am I tired of these constant waves of outrage about nothing in particular. When a colleague of mine expressed shock at how impassioned the discussion of the campus grill’s name became, she was told that “we feel impotent to change anything that really matters, but at least we can effectuate tangible change when we change the grill name.” The truth, however, is that we are only impotent because we have convinced ourselves that we are. There are things to be done other than renaming grills and hunting for husbands in the lab. Let’s stop clucking like a bunch of stupid hens and just do something of use already.

OK, so remember our struggle for power discussion?  Want to know how the situation developed and who was right? See for yourselves:

Apropos of my coming visit, he remarked on our “dating or whatever you call it” before continuing with possible activities while I’m there.  A bit later, he told me how much he enjoyed my company; he was happy when we were together.  He followed that with a comment about how our interactions often made him think of his ex, when we were in a certain place or talking about a certain subject.  Then he referenced how our relationship was “temporary,” although he didn’t have a specific timeline.

I’m never mistaken about these things. The guy won an early advantage and is now pressing it home at every opportunity. He’s the one deciding whether the relationship is temporary and is skillfully keeping his adversary on her toes by having her guess when he will choose to terminate it.

People, remember, whatever you do, don’t become the person who guesses, wonders, frets and tries to figure out what the other person is assuming, implying, wanting or planning. Figure out what you want and make it known. Calmly communicate your wishes in very clear terms.

And for Pete’s sake, do not allow a casual date who won’t even allow you to call him or her a date unload the drama of children, exes, divorces, and psychological issues on you.

The concept of psychological projection can be studied very productively in the Russian media. A single newspaper reported on the same page of the same issue that the following people were observed in Ukraine fighting on the Ukrainian side:

1.  Black soldiers.
2. Arabs.
3. Israelis.

All that’s missing is Baba Yaga.

My university is just driving me nuts right now. First, I had to start using the Outlook for my work email. This was extraordinarily inconvenient but there was no choice. I have gotten used to it and am making do with it.

Now, however, we are canning the Outlook model and switching to something called Online Office365. This entails yet another disruption and yet another set of problems. I have to schlep to the office and have an appointment with somebody who will reconfigure my computer to receive the emails. How I will be able to access them from home is not even being addressed.

I just want to do my work in peace. I don’t care which stupid corporation we sign yet another humongously expensive contract with. I just want to be left in peace.

At least. I’m not teaching right now. Imagine the people who are teaching an online course and need to be responding to student email all day long.

This is so annoying.

It’s good to see that Northwestern is drowning in money so much that it needs to waste it on prosecuting professors for writing essays:

Laura Kipnis, the Northwestern University professor

who became the subject of two Title IX complaints after publishing an essay in The Chronicle Review, has been cleared of wrongdoing by the university under the federal civil-rights law, which requires colleges to respond to reports of sexual misconduct.

Using Title IX to investigate people for writing articles is beyond outrageous. It is even more outrageous that all this money did not go towards promoting research or improving teaching.

Here is the Kipnis story for those who missed it.

I don’t believe I will ever be able to blog under my own name because as the standard of living improves and our society grows richer, people tend do find offense in more and more outlandish things.

Human beings need adversity to overcome and when there is none, they will invent it. These complaints against mean professors who inflict horrifying damage by saying or writing something will keep growing more frequent. I have personally experienced an explosion in them since the recession started rolling back.

It was extremely naive of me to believe there was a single rabbit visiting my sunflower patch. The other day, I glanced outside and discovered six of them.

The rabbits assumed the position of Goya’s naked maja, turning their fat white bellies to the sun and stretching themselves luxuriously. My appearance outside did not arouse much of their interest.

I have now covered my sunflowers with a net because the rabbits have taken to surrounding the patch and eyeing it greedily.