I’ll report, you decide.
The EU “Science: it’s a girl thing!” campaign:
The White House’s Girls in STEM video (hat tip to Scicurious):
Vote in the comments! IT’LL BE A FUCKEN TIGHTTE RACE, I’M SURE!!!1 (Err. Sorry, I channeled PhysioProf for a second there.)
Also, to skew your votes ever so slightly, Teen Skepchick hosts a spirited debate about what shade of eyeshadow women scientists should work on first. I think. I nodded off halfway through the title because it wasn’t jump-cutty enough.
17 comments
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'Tis Himself
June 23, 2012 at 8:38 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Alas, poor Jason. I knew him when he was sane. Soon he’ll be a gibbering husk of a man, muttering about the New York Yankees and spicy food.
Forbidden Snowflake
June 23, 2012 at 9:43 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yeah, not much of a competition there.
Savaga
June 23, 2012 at 9:54 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
As an engineer myself, the White House STEM competition really gives me hope that there are still kids (especially girls) interested in STEM fields in this country. I didn’t get the opportunity to compete in something like that, but I think it really would have been a fantastic experience.
Icaarus
June 23, 2012 at 11:04 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Some of those whitehouse projects were amazing. I hope they get external review and help. If that land mine detector really works it could be a game changer for the de-mining projects around the world. (Last time I checked it was $0.50 to deploy a land mine and $500 to pull one back out of the ground)
Mike
June 23, 2012 at 12:16 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I love it! I hadn’t seen that video before, but the contrast is certainly striking:)
ohioobserver
June 23, 2012 at 12:17 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Say what you will about Barack Obama, it’s refreshing (in an escaping-from-drowning sense) to have a President who respects science, understands it’s importance, and even appears to have an appreciation for what is says and does.
postman
June 23, 2012 at 1:49 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Trick question. The EU is not a state and therefore has no goverment.
Erin
June 23, 2012 at 2:44 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I don’t think there’s any competition there. I mean, the US one doesn’t make me want to cover someone’s car with melted lipstick…it does make me want to eat some fruit and do some knitting/dying, though.
dorfl
June 23, 2012 at 3:16 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
*facepalm*
I am now deeply embarrassed on behalf of my continent.
pwillow1
June 23, 2012 at 5:06 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wow, not even a contest.
I couldn’t bear to watch the 53-second EU one all the way through. But with the US one, about 8 times the length of the EU one, I got quite choked up listening to those enthusiastic young people and seeing their projects. I came away inspired and hopeful.
mrp
June 23, 2012 at 6:12 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The US one made me embarrassed that I’m not a genius.
Ex Patriot
June 24, 2012 at 8:12 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
There is no compition there at asll the 2nd vid wins hands down
Ole
June 24, 2012 at 12:45 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
2nd video. No contest.
(I’m European, btw. Not a proud one right now.)
P Smith
June 24, 2012 at 3:25 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“Which government?” Actually, which *part* of government in the US’s case. I’m sure there are plenty of cretins who want those girls in a home-ec class instead of a science class.
Some ideas were simple but useful, some were ambitious and some were pipe dreams, but they all accomplished the main goal: they were thinking and experimenting. They aren’t “girls doing science”, they’re students doing science. They shouldn’t need qualifiers.
left0ver1under
June 24, 2012 at 3:33 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Icaarus says (#4):
Related to mine detection, I read a story this week about “silly string”.
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/87/8743sci2.html
It sounds like a product plug, but it does seem to be a cheap way to detect booby traps inside buildings. The soldier opens the door and sprays it in. If it hangs in the air, there’s a tripwire.
curtrice
June 26, 2012 at 10:29 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I was on the “gender expert” group that provided recommendations to the EC as background for their work on the “Science: It’s a girl thing!” campaign. Four of us from the group issued a statement today which on the one hand is clearly critical of the teaser video that has received so much attention (clearly, if you speak “diplomat” at least) and on the other hand tries to say that the issue of recruiting more women to science is so crucial and so important that the EC shouldn’t get totally derailed by this snafu. Our statement was published at wp.me/p22Uc1-XC .
Jason Thibeault
June 26, 2012 at 10:33 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thank you, curtrice. I hope you can help right that ship, because the campaign is absolutely vital regardless of how badly they’ve screwed up the teaser.