Dance your PHD 2012 Winner (Video)

Honestly I can't believe that I didn't know this existed, not since I first saw the world Air Guitar championships have I been so impressed at the awesome silliness of a competition.

In an attempt to bring some light hearted fun (and maybe some less glazed eyes) Gonzolabs bring the competition together each year with a cash prize and more importantly a free trip to TEDxBrussels for the winner.



This video has all the joy of slightly awkward nerds, dancing queens and people pretending to be atoms in an alloy.

What Male And Female Scientists Say About Women In Science

Portrait of Monsieur Lavoisier and His Wife (Wikimedia)

Men

• “morphological differences and biological differences [make men better at] hardcore math and physics.” — male assistant professor, genetics
• "[There are] some brain differences between men and women that explain it." — male grad student, biology
• “On balance [women are] just less interested in math.” — male professor, biology
• “Physics is more difficult for girls and you need a lot of thinking, and the calculation, and the logic. So that’s maybe hard for girls.” — male grad student, physics
• “Science has been a male-dominated field for a substantially long period of time, and it’s going to take a while for that shift to change.” — male grad student, biology
• "Women have to make a choice [because] the woman ends up being the primary caregiver if they have children.” — male postdoctoral fellow, biology

Women

• “I think women ... want to have more of a sense that what they are doing is helping somebody. ... Maybe there are more women in ... biology [because] you can be like ‘Oh, I am going to go cure cancer.’” — postdoctoral fellow, biology
• "Physics is more abstract and biology is more concrete. Women are less likely to like abstract things.” — female associate professor, physics
• “[A friend of mine] was always told, ‘Oh, you’re not good at math,’ until she found herself getting As in a multivariable calculus class. You know, she was scared of math all through high school.” — female grad student, physics
• “Male-dominated departments are really unpleasant for women. [...] Men can be huge jerks in those situations.” — female associate professor, biology
• “I know a lot of women who are in chemistry and physics who are excellent at what they’re doing, but are often sidelined or ignored by their colleagues because there’s just not very many of them.” — female assistant professor, biology
• “It’s not going to be solved until we figure out how to help mothers figure out how to do the career and the kid thing.” — female associate professor, physics

More at http://www.buzzfeed.com/annanorth/what-male-and-female-scientists-say-about-women-in

Geek print skirts for that feminine touch

One of the annoying things about the lesser number of nerd girls is the lack of gender specific merchandise - there's a lot more Batman boxers than Knickers that's for sure. Some companies have led the way like XKCD's regex skirt but there's growing realisation that girls are nerds too and like to dress that way! Etsy has some great geek crafts out there and one of my favourites for the ladies recently has to be these custom printed geek skirts from Etsy user GoChaseRabbits

Retro Gamer

TRON lightrails

The droid skirt I *am* looking for!

There's more designs ranging from lolita Alice in Wonderland styles to Mario adventures and at under $50 each these would make unique and affordable additions to anyone's convention wardrobe.

This is my world: Inside Google's Datacenters

I am lucky enough to work in Infrastructure at Google and know first hand the beauty of our fleet, for the first time Google is making video, photos and information on our data center design public.

You can view gorgeous photos, take a video tour or even self guide yourself using StreetView.

I for one have been waiting excitedly for this all to be made public so you can share in the nerdgasmic photos. For added kudos noted technical history writer Steven Levy was invited to speak to our infrastructure leads, you can see his story on Wired. 

More at http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/ where you can find all the newly released media as well as a historical look at our approach to ecological design and innovative platforms.

Happy Ada Lovelace Day!

An illustration inspired by the A. E. Chalonportrait created for the Ada Initiative, which supports open technology and women.

Ada Lovelace is touted as the first computer programmer, and a female one at that. On Ada Lovelace Day we aim to raise the profile of women in science and technology.

How can you get involved?

• Spread the word via social media
• Link to some interesting articles on Ada Lovelace Day
• Support the Ada Initiative
• Join the Anita Borg Institute
• Have a celebration at your company or local women's interest groups
• Take some time to think about the battles for equality still faced by professional women
• Celebrate the technical women in your life

Grooveshark knows what music gamers listen to

Grooveshark the massive music streaming site has developed Beluga which is to music trending what the OK Trend Blog is to social data. Great for music nerds, data nerds and apparently gamers as shown by this infographic they've developed.

A primer on Sexism in the Tech Industry

Net Magazine have printed a great primer covering concepts for sexism in the tech industry including common terms used by geek feminists and a link to a number of efforts to combat this issue (including our friends over at the Ada Initiative)

Not everyone is always on the same page when it comes to the terms we use in these debates, so let's start there:

• Feminism: the simple belief that women deserve to have the same social, economical and political rights as men, be treated equally and fairly, and given equal opportunities. Modern (third-wave) feminists make it even simpler: fair and actual equality for all, regardless of gender, race/ethnicity, religion, age, and sexuality.
• Privilege: Receiving benefits in life, however subtle or invisible they may seem to you, simply for belonging to a group you didn't work hard for to get in. In today's Western society, being male, white and straight gives you three huge privileges over everyone else. More on that in a bit.
• Positive action: Often incorrectly labelled 'positive discrimination', positive action is a measure imposed (usually by government) to enforce a change in the ratio of certain groups in systems. This act is the acknowledgment of the scientific and historical evidence that natural social progress moves too slowly, requiring overseeing entities to intervene (temporarily) as a way of speeding up this progress – so that we may actually enjoy the improvements in our lifetimes.
• Discrimination: Prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.
• Prejudice: Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. Since positive action is based on both reason and actual experience, the label 'positive discrimination' (and the subsequent cries of "it's still discrimination!") is inaccurate and deceitful.
• Meritocracy: A culture or society in which power is given to people based on their proven abilities, as opposed to wealth, background, privilege, and so forth.
• Rape culture: The assessment of how today's society makes light of rape – a physically and emotionally painful, and often traumatic and violent crime – which significantly contributes to the mistreatment of women by making their mistreatment a seemingly accepted practice. Rape jokes and their ilk contribute heavily to this

More at http://www.netmagazine.com/features/primer-sexism-tech-industry

Education at Google Video on Women in CS

New Animal Crossing 3DS content revealed (video)

It's not secret that many gamer girls love simulation and community games and I like many of my female gamer friends am a total Animal Crossing junkie. I've owned it on 3 different platforms now and with the release of this new content you can believe I'll be finally giving in to a 3DS so I can play the new version.



The new game will allow the player to act as mayor of the town with greater control than ever before. You will be able to set the opening times and types of shops that are in your town, design town features like bridges and seats. All this on top of expanding existing features such as more clothing design control and better houses. Along with all the features announced with the Japanese release information on the US release has also surfaced.

My Little Browsies

First we had fashion based on large social networks and now My Little Ponies based on popular browsers. Kudos to ParallaxMLP and friends on Deviant Art for cute nerdy artwork.

Chrome

Firefox

Internet Explorer

Safari 

Information spread in the internet age (infographic)

Facebook bans cosplay profiles

Cosplay Angel as Hatsune Miku

Cosplay is one of the spheres in which geek girls have been welcomed and indeed celebrated with huge success and so it is a shame to hear this news.

Facebook are taking the same approach to 'legitimacy' of user profiles that caused all the ruckus with Google+ 'real names' policy and removing duplicate and fake profiles from their site. The main cause appears to be to to protect those posing as others and to reduce the number of fake celebrity profiles on the site.

Unfortunately in a mass data clean up they have targeted and removed the profiles of many cosplayers and deleted all accounts with the surname "cosplay" in an effort to reduce duplicate accounts created by fans for their cosplay efforts. The Examiner even claims that gamers with profiles for their characters could be targeted next.

The Cosplay community is understandably upset. Some have separate 'personas' they keep for conventions and competitions, others say they'd prefer not to share an unusual hobby (and possibly risque outfits) with their family and colleagues. Many have lost years of photo albums and online social networking.

"Professional" cosplayers such as Cosplay Angel have been protected by using Facebook pages rather than profiles, but for the lay man this didn't seem like a requirement and the deletion of accounts was without warning. Some blame adult content such as the infamous Venom Cosplay that was banned, others feel persecuted in a medium that has traditionally been very geek friendly.

For Cosplayers and supporters alike Change.org have created an online petition against the deletion of Cosplay accounts. What about you Nerd Girls? Have you had an account deleted? What do you think about the move towards social media profiles being used as an internet proxy for forms of ID?

Luxury geek chic: Louboutin Circuit Print shoes

If there's an easy way to appeal to a geek girl it's to make sexy shoes nerdy. Louboutin has answered the Nerd Girl's dream with a series of new circuit print accessories. 

Starting with the Lady Peep open toed high heel

Are you a practical nerd girl, more prone to sprinting to the bus than teetering in heels? No problem they've also released a sneaker! They say they're for boys but the sizes go to 39.5 so the larger footed ladies are in luck

Love to accessorise? They even made a bag!

Fake Geek Girls

This article on fake geek girls on Forbes really caught my eye and made me think.

I for one can't stand those 'stand in' booth babes at cons who are just pretty girls given an outfit for the day who know nothing about gaming or their product and are basically there to flirt and make boys (and only the boys) feel important.

On the other hand I feel like we have a growing collection of nerd friendly women in the media who shouldn't feel scrutinized about their geek cred every time they represent a convention on TV. By these I mean the likes of Olivia Munn, Aisha Tyler and Felicia Day. Women who have shown time and again that they're gamer geeks who just happen to work on TV.

Have a read and see what you think:

'Fake Geek Girls': How Geek Gatekeeping Is Bad For Business

Yvonne Craig as Batgirl (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The presence of a “Geek Out” section on CNN.com, as established and establishment a media outlet as one could ask for, suggests that, at least when it comes to page views, geek has entered the mainstream. However, a recent opinion piece by the writer and designer Joe Peacock suggests that there is still some growing up to do – and it is going to have to be in public.

Peacock’s piece – titled “Booth Babes need not apply” – trots out the familiar trope of the “ fake geek girl” – the woman who is pretending to be a geek for reasons of her own. We’ve seen this device before, many times – indeed, we saw it here on Forbes.com, with Tara Tiger Brown‘s “Fake Geek Girls – Go Away!“. Kirk Hamilton of Kotaku – a real geek boy, to the best of my knowledge – said in response to that article:

Imagine: You meet a girl, and you get to talking. You talk about your jobs, your neighborhoods; you talk about your interests. As it turns out, the two of you are into a lot of the same things. This is cool! Wow, she likes the same obscure slasher flicks and retro video games that you do. How lucky for you both!

Wait. Be careful. This could all be a ruse. She could be… a Fake Geek Girl.

Oh no actually, false alarm. Turns out she’s just a person who is into stuff to varying degrees. There’s no such thing as a Fake Geek Girl.

Which is probably true, but conceals another point – the idea of the “fake geek girl”, and the self-appointed geekquisitors rooting them out, are bad for business.

More at http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnyegriffiths/2012/07/26/fake-geek-girls-gamer-edition/ 

Disney XD gets geek friendly

Disney has really upped its game with programming on the XD channel and we're starting to see a lot of new geek friendly material popping up in the news. 

The Tron: Uprising series mixes 2D and 3D animation and starts where the Tron: Legacy movie leaves off. It features some heavy weight voice talent as well including Bruce Boxleitner reappearing as Tron, Elijah Wood voicing the main character and Lance Henriksen stepping in as the bad guy. 

On top of this they're playing plenty of super hero cartoons like Ultimate Spiderman and The Avengers. Sadly they seem to have cancelled showing the Stitch! Anime series but never fear you can order it from Amazon.

Gamers Get Girls (Infographic)

Geek fashionista for the web

Victor Faretina designs fashion for the geek femme fatale on Deviant Art as Neko-Vi including a number of calendar, pop culture and lolita styles. Recently he's completed a series of internet fashionista personas for popular websites. 

A guide to the content and reading order for Discworld novels

Bat-bras & Super-scivvies

Time was that Superhero underoos were something to be mocked or laughed at...
Not so much now thanks to Japanese company aimerfeel and their "We Love Hero" range of licensed lingerie and loungewear.

via ComicsAlliance

Kick ass and look hot...

Are you tired of boxy shapeless kevlar vests? Sick of resorting to spandex show off your curves while kicking ass?

Tactical Corsets are the brainchild of Alex Peake "Fashioner Memeticist" and are made from high durability fabric available in black and a range of real camo patterns not to mention more pouches than you can poke a Rob Liefeld at.

So if you need a little more Shadowrun in your wardrobe you'll be hard pressed to find anything more fitting.

See more at http://tacticalcorsets.com/