Not really. I adore math and all its perfect logic. I’ve ranted before about math and smart girls and the general idea that being capable of doing something well has nothing to do with gender, race, sex, or your ass’ ability to sprout wings.

Tara C. Smith at Aetiology has some words about this subject as it relates to her career. She’s a scientist and an assistant prof and she can manage to research epidemiology without her hotness getting in the way.

Previous Posts:

Smart Girls Are Hot
Why So Few Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math?
You Can Kiss my Math Because Smart Girls Are Hot
Dual Academic Careers
Left-Leaning Professor Types
The Hotness of Geek Barbie

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(geek barbie)

It is sometimes useful to be able to prove that you’re not the only one who is fixated on the constant misuse of some word or another. In my case, the word is literally. The evidence I gathered to convince my loved ones that I’m not the only one who spends too much time thinking about literally‘s misuse: The Word We Love To Hate. Literally. It’s written by dictionary editor Jesse Sheidlower for Slate.

In addition to writing an entire article about it, Sheidlower points out a blog focused entirely on the erroneous use of literally. Good to know it’s not just me who’s driven insane (figuratively, of course) by people who swear to me that they waited in line at the ATM “literally forever!” (I’m always too polite to mention that if that were true, they’d still be in that stupid line and wouldn’t be standing in front of me, abusing the hell out of “literally.”

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(screwed; end of the line)

According to my favorite tech nerd, Jane Hart, Twitter is a viable learning tool for surgeons. See? Not the career for me.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Sometimes, in the midst of the slammed life of a college student who has too much input heaving around in her head, I trip over the weird way a particular word is spelled or the wondering why that person over there doing whatever it is they’re doing. It’s a momentary flicker through my overwhelmed, zippity speedy head and 24 hours later I realize I’ve been obsessing about the word or the unknown person’s mysterious actions to the detriment of my perfectly stacked house of efficiently productive cards.

These bothersome fixations are not at all interesting except to some annoying-ass bit of my grey matter, which has no effing business using its precious energy on anything but my quest for badass knowledge-acquisition and the pulling of me through reality in one piece. I don’t even want to be thinking about the nagging bit of fluffy, time-wasting nothing, but my brain has latched on and won’t let it go.

A Freakonomics reader has the same situation going on with his neighborhood Banana Stand Lady. She sells fruit, including bananas. Her customers can buy 1 banana for $0.40, 2 bananas for $0.80, 2 bananas for $1.00, or 3 bananas for $1.00. The reader cannot figure out why seemingly identical (in both appearance and taste) bananas all sell for differing amounts.

And has he asked her? No.

Thanks, Freakonomics guy. Now it’s bothering me, too.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

*Every third comment on the Banana Stand post at Freakonomics was this quote. Now I’m righteously (and obsessively!) angry all over again that some chucklehead in a suit canceled Arrested Development, the only television show that was capable of making me laugh every episode.

(photos: William Kearney)

Fashion is intellectual, too, you know. I read Worn Through: Apparel From an Academic Perspective because the writers are always so amped about everything all the time. And because the subject is so foreign to me: I live in Seattle; I wear Levis, black t-shirts, Fluevog boots and Converse sneakers and call it good. I’m continually fascinated by the exhibits and Assistant Professor of Fashion job postings they list.

Due to my math and science snobbery, I have to work to acknowledge to myself that there are several other arenas for nerdery in academia. Read Worn Through and you’ll believe, too.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(brooklyn museum)

The transition from being a kick-ass high school senior to a floundering, inept college freshman is no fun for anyone. Year One: A College Blog is a simple weekly blog by an anonymous college freshman–”Ruby”– at a college campus somewhere in the U.S.

I’ve read it for a few years, and while it’s backed by some adult entity or another it has always maintained a convincing and realistic voice and viewpoint of a normal–but somewhat highly achieving—first-year college student. I recommend it for the drowning, first-term-down-and-still-no-time-to-breathe freshman masses.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(college campus)

It’s cringe-y and funny and it just upset me and made me laugh until I snurfed green tea out my nose. I think you should read it too. Chag Holland is Cynical Dad and he is capable of making your day better.

I help out in my daughter’s class. I used to just do simple things like copy papers and cut out shapes and crap, but somewhere along the line, someone got the dumb idea that I could actually work with the kids and teach them things. Big mistake. Last week, I was working with a table of kids and teaching them how to carry ones. One of the little boys at the table spoke up.
——
Boy #1: I’m the best in the class at math.—

Internal Chag: Um, no, or you wouldn’t be sitting here with me.—

Girl #1: No you’re not! Hamid is!—

Boy #1: That doesn’t count. Of course he’s the best at math.—

External Chag: Why is he the best at math?—

Boy #1: He’s from another country. All they do is math.
—
Internal Chag: What the fuck, dude?

More…

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image source)

ConstructionManagementDegree.org has a list of 100 Awesome Business Blogs That Are Better Than an MBA. It’s like a goldmine of information for MBA do-it-yourselfers.

The list is broken down into the following categories:

Small Business and Entrepreneur Blogs and Resources
Marketing Blogs and Solutions
General Business Blogs
Human Resources and Ethics Blogs
MBA Survival Guides and Business Career Blogs
Economy Trends and News
Investing News and Financial Blogs
Resources for Business Women
Online Business Blogs and Tools
Management Resources and Information
Harvard Business Heavy Hitters

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image source)

A Thank You to StudentLoans.net for including Educated Nation in their Top 50 Continuing Education Blogs. I’m in the section that includes Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education, which means I may have fooled the blogosphere into thinking I’m all about the smartness. (My evil plan is working!)

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image source)

Wired magazine calls him “the explainer.” Michael Wesch is a social anthropologist who teaches at Kansas State University. In his 15-minute TED talk, he explains the effects of media (social and otherwise) on learners, on humanity, and on the classroom environment.

Wesch also manages to squeeze in a bit telling other educators how to take advantage of all the media and the technology humans have available as a way to make students more “knowledge-able” than just knowledgeable. It’s not just memorizing facts and theories anymore—all the information is out there, students need to learn how to find it and ponder it and bring their own thoughts and theories to the table.

Watch it. It takes about 15 minutes; that’s less time than it takes to drink a cup of coffee. And no way one cup of caffeine will blow your mind like Michael Wesch can.

Posted by Alexa Harrington