Great Tweets of Science

I found this amusing and thought I would share:

Summer Vacation - Grad Student Style

So this is my second summer in my program and it is almost over. I have worked, not just on my own work, at least 10 hours a week, if not more. My crackberry and/or laptop is glued to me at all times, and I am always putting out little fires here and there. I do like that part of my job. I like being the one that people email/call when they need help. Unfortunately, there really isn't too much of a break from this, no matter where I go. I spent a week on a Caribbean cruise and the weekend in Miami. I worked about 12 hours on that vacation. I spent a week in the Wisconsin Dells area with my family, and put in another 10 hours or so. I will be going back to the Wisconsin Dells are with the girls this weekend and hopefully will not have to work more than 2 hours this weekend. What is nice is that I have been invited to present what I do to two different groups, one an entire college's faculty development day, and the other group are the new TA's in the department I got my MA in. While I am flattered by this attention, this I've got to prep for these sessions as well as get ready for my classes this fall. The PhD Comic below sums up how I feel:

Amen, Sister

This is from BitchPhD's Twitter page: "Dear Pixar, From All the Girls with Band-Aids on Their Knees."

I don't remember growing up wanting to be a princess and I am deeply disturbed as I see it being the only heroine marketed to young girls nowadays. Why do girls not get an animated woman with a profession or an education who is not waiting for a man to help define her? Maybe this is because I am reading Gilligan's In A Different Voice, but I just keep thinking about how different parents treat their children, not based on personality, but based on the child's sex. These differences in treatment will drastically shape children's personalities, and yet the parents wonder why these girls are so desperate for a relationship/sex and the boys are always pushing boundaries to prove their masculinity. It comes back to childhood role models and treatment!

I am on vacation with my family all week and it is fascinating to see how different my niece is treated when compared with my nephews. Even just the word choices are different. It is not bad, but it makes you wonder. People seem more obsessed with pronouncing the differences in the sexes, rather than showing the similarities. Parents are given little options to be sex-neutral in toys, clothing, or programming. Everything is his and hers rather than one size fits all. Stores are split down the middle separating the pink from the blue. What if pink is not your daughter's color, or you son prefers green? Do they go naked rather than defy the rules of the Baby Gap?