An audience member stopped World Science Festival host Jim Holt from speaking over physics professor Veronika Hubeny

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From Marilee Talkington’s post:

So, after thinking about this over night, I’ve decided to share something that happened at the WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL yesterday afternoon in NYC that changed me. Or rather made me step into who I am in a larger way.

As some on my feed have seen, I was live-feeding the beginning of the panel discussion on FB. That panel was made up of some of the greatest and most famous minds in the world in Inflationary Cosmology, String Theory, Cosmology and Physics based Philosophy. The panel was made up of 5 men and 1 woman. And the moderator was a science writer and journalist for The New Yorker.

In the first hour of the panel discussion you can see clearly, if watching the video, that Veronika Hubeny, the only woman on the panel is barely given any opportunity to speak. And the Moderator, Jim Holt even acknowledges this.

In the last 20-30 minutes of the 90 minute discussion Jim Holt finally pushes the conversation to Hubeny’s field of expertise, string theory, and this is what ensued:

He asked her to describe her two theories of string theory that seem to contradict one another.

And THEN, without letting her answer, proceeded to answer for her and describe HER theories in detail without letting her speak for herself.

We could clearly see that she was trying to speak up. But he continued to talk over her and dominate the space for several minutes.

I should say that this panel was taking place in a large auditorium as it is an extremely high-profile and always sold-out event. And the panel discussion was being live-streamed across the world and they say that millions of people watch these videos after they are made public. (Which they already are).

So at this point, after seeing very clearly that she was not going to be given space to speak and in fact having her own theories described to the audience by the moderator, I am in full outrage. My body is actually beginning to shake. The sexism is beyond blatant. It is happening on stage and NO ONE, not a single other physicist or panelist is stepping in to say anything about it. And I can hear other audience members around me, both men and women becoming more and more agitated with what is happening. Jim Holt, even at one point, asks Veronica a question and she laughs because he has been answering his own questions about her work…and he makes fun of her for ‘giggling’.

So at some point while he is Still talking about Her theories, I just can’t handle it any longer.

With my hands shaking,

I finally say from my seat in the 2nd row of the audience, as clearly, directly and loudly as possible;

“Let. Her. Speak. Please!”

The moderator stops.

They all stop.

The auditorium drops into silence.

You could hear a pin drop.

And then the audience explodes with applause and screams.

Jim Holt eventually sat back, only after saying I was heckling him And he let her speak. And of course, she was brilliant.

———————–

So, the panel discussion ends.

My hands are still shaking. I’m still upset by the incredible sexism that has been demonstrated this afternoon. But I also realize that I just spoke up in an auditorium full of people that are listening to people that are considered gods in the international science world. I was just overwhelmed by it all

We get up to leave.

And then it happens.

Person after person come up to me. Both men and women.

The first woman, right behind me, reaches over and embraces me and says, “Oh my god. what you said was the most important thing that was said all day. Thank you. Thank you.”

And then people start filing out of their aisles and wind their way over to me:

“Was that you? Thank you so much for speaking up. Thank you.”

“Was that you? Oh god, what he was doing was horrific. Thank you. I wanted to do something but didn’t know how”

“Was that you? I wish I had the courage to say something, thank you! Thank you so much”

“Was that you? You said what everyone here was thinking. Look I had even been writing in my notebook what you eventually said (shows me his notebook with ‘let her speak’ written over and over.) But you said it. You said it. Thank you.”

“Was that you? Thank you! I felt so powerless to do anything.”

And on.

So we were all thinking this.

—- So I walked out. And my friend who was sitting about 8 rows behind me, came up to me with a huge grin and said “That was you, wasn’t it? Of course it was. YES!!!!! I will be telling this story for years.”

And the whole time, my hands are still shaking. And I’m felling light-headed. And I just want to scream out into the lobby “WHY IS THIS SEXISM STILL HAPPENING? WHY, does someone like me, with No status in that room, have to be so extraordinarily bold and speak up? And why was it so frightening to do so?”

And I’m thinking. “God, please god let this be an opening for those that were here today and the tens of thousands that watched the live-streaming of the panel yesterday and the hundreds of thousands that will watch the video this year- to speak up when we see this happening. And please let me not be afraid to do this again …and again …and again” Because it was scary.

Please keep giving me courage.

one of the things i love about ebenezer scrooge, and a christmas carol in general, is that, unlike most fictional rich people, scrooge doesn't allow himself the luxuries that he denies to others.

like. he is enormously wealthy, but does he spend his money on good food and nice things and indulgences? no. he keeps his house dark because it's cheaper to not light things, he eats gruel, he barely even makes a big enough fire to heat himself, let alone the room. he scrimps and pinches pennies everywhere he can - including in areas that other people would consider "necessities" rather than "luxuries."

the story of a christmas carol is as much about ebenezer scrooge coming to realize that his misanthropy and miserliness is making himself as miserable as it's making everyone around him, and learning to once again take joy in living in a way he hasn't allowed himself since he was a boy.

it's genuinely cruel to ebenezer scrooge to compare him to assholes like elon musk and jeff bezos.

for all that he is a terrible, terrible person, at least scrooge isn't a damn hypocrite.

This is my first coding assignment for my software engineering class that started today. It’s going to be a really good semester.

UPDATE: I got my grade back and

“100″

Since this post has gotten some attention, I feel like it’s worth mentioning that this was just the first half of the assignment.

The second half, which we weren’t made aware of until the day we were meant to turn this one in, was to trade USB drives with the person sitting next to us and MODIFY their “unreadable” code without getting any help from them.

This was to teach us two things:

1) In this field, you’ll spend more time working with code written by other people than you will writing original code from a blank slate. The people who wrote the original code will probably not be around to help you. Learning to read code is IMPORTANT, even if it seems unreadable.

2) There is a strong brotherhood/sisterhood among programmers and software engineers. Respect that bond when you’re writing code and documentation. In my professor’s words: “When you write code, pretend that the person who will have to maintain it after you’re gone is a homicidal maniac who knows where you live.”

This class and professor are incredible.

been thinkin about how my ethics professor back in undergrad was like.

look. there’s no such thing as perfect altruism. you’ll always get something out of helping or being kind to others, whether it’s a stronger relationship or returned kindness or just the feeling of having done good. there’s nothing inherently bad about getting something from doing good either, especially since it’s completely unavoidable. people being rewarded for putting love into the world doesn’t make the world a worse place. so just do as much good as you can and don’t worry about being “selfless” while doing it, because being truly selfless is in fact impossible.

and like man did that take the pressure off of Being A Good Person!! you’re allowed to enjoy helping people! you’re allowed to be kind without worrying that you’re maybe secretly just doing it for yourself!! it’s okay if you are doing it for yourself because you’re still being kind to others!!!!!

if it makes you happy to help people then actually you are helping two people

I’m doing my annual Frasier rewatch and it’s frankly stunning how well it fits Erik.

if one more culturally christian atheist starts to talk about how all religion is evil and oppressive and a mind destroyer in front of me after i mention judaism i am going to start filling their homes with giant hornets

Cory has finally charmed Feeny. And it felt like the end of the season…It’s wonderful….From pilot episode to this episode you see a whole arc that makes sense. -Rider 

The best Wikipedia lists

List of inventors killed by their own inventions

List of scandals with the -gate suffix

List of noodles

List of hoaxes

List of pirates

Response to sneezing - that is, what you say after someone sneezes

List of places in the U.S. named after places elsewhere

List of songs about bicycles

List of American advertising characters (e.g. the geico gecko. There is also an article for breakfast cereal mascots specifically.)

List of unusual deaths

List of superlative trees - its TREE APPRECIATION TIME

Recursive islands and lakes

List of Crayola crayon colors

List of individual birds. There is SO much going on here.

List of deep-fried foods (aaaaaaa)

List of words that are their own antonyms

List of genres (of...everything)

List of onomatopoeias - READ THIS PLEASE

List of Noah’s Ark replicas

List of people who have been pied

List of voids - This is meant in the astronomy sense but I think the name is funny.

List of animal sounds

List of cryptids

List of prison escapes

List of discredited substances - there’s a LOT going on here

List of methods of capital punishment

List of wartime cross-dressers

List of extinct dog breeds. this topic contains some of my favorite obscure facts

List of songs considered to be the worst - there is also an article about the worst books and one about the worst movies, if you’re interested

List of facial hair styles

List of clowns

List of sexually active popes - I just think it’s funny that this is an article

List of reportedly haunted locations

List of animals with fraudulent diplomas

List of people who died on the toilet

List of English language metaphors

List of bad luck signs

the onomatopoeias 😂😂

[ID: a screenshot of the onomatopoeia wikipedia page, showing the sub-section "Sounds in fiction." The list reads as follows:

Bamf, the sound Nightcrawler makes when teleporting

Pew-pew or pew-pew-pew, the sound of a laser gun in science fiction

Snikt, the sound of Wolverine's claws being extended

Thwip, the sound that Spider-Man's web shooters make

Vworp, the sound the TARDIS makes when it materializes

End ID.]

Hey yall, I wanted to make a PSA about this because it’ll be useful to many of you in the United States. You might qualify for public assistance now, specifically because of rising food prices.

The federal poverty line, the biggest determining factor for public assistance, has been kept artificially low for decades because it was based on the outdated assumption that food was the primary expense for most American households. For decades now, shelter has been the larger expense, but the federal poverty limit has still been determined based on the prices of food commodities.

Because food prices have recently gone up, the federal poverty line has gone up significantly as well. This means if you were previously slightly over the income limit to qualify for public assistance such as food stamps or medicaid, you likely qualify now. I’d like to encourage everyone who thinks they might qualify to apply for these programs. The qualification cutoffs are still absurdly low, so please be assured that if you qualify for assistance, you’re not taking something you don’t need or deserve.

Please reblog this if you think your followers will find it useful. I haven’t seen anyone talking about this, it’s just something I noticed recently, so I want the info to become more public to help people who might be struggling.

The website below has the poverty line values based on the number of people in your household. Note that Alaska and Hawaii have different values than the rest of the states. This site is updated every year so it will always have the most up to date info on poverty guidelines.

https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines

Oh also! As of last week (April 21, 2022), families that receive SNAP benefits can now use proof that they receive SNAP benefits to qualify for Head Start and Early Head Start programs! If you or someone you know receives SNAP and has a child (or children) under age 5, please check out your local Head Start (ages 3-5) or Early Head Start (ages 0-3 and some programs also serve pregnant adults) program.

turns out my life purpose isn’t supposed to be as small and silent and accommodating and convenient as possible

Hey, man:

They tried to say that abolishing chattel slavery would ruin the economy.

They tried to say that outlawing child labor would ruin the economy.

They tried to say that the 8-hour day would ruin the economy

They tried to say that a minimum wage would ruin the economy

They tried to say that health and safety regulations would ruin the economy

Have we noticed a pattern yet?

It’s tea time ♡

PEONY

Just a reminder that Vincent van Gogh did not eat yellow paint to make himself feel happy, he ate paint, and drank different chemicals because he was suicidal and this is why he was not allowed in his studio while having breakdowns. He also did not paint starry night and his other great works because he was depressed, he painted most of them while he was in recovery and demonstrated his hopefulness and love of the world through this. Most of his great works were painted from his room at a hospital. Van Gogh’s depression should not be glorified. His hope and effort toward a better life, as well as his recovery from depression should be glorified.

Fucking thank you