Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is Wikipedia’s article of the day. That makes me extremely happy, for some utterly random reason.
Category: …and everything else
Mostly everything else in a brain-academic way.
2005 NUBC
And speaking of Jon Moreno, UPenn has photogrpahs from the 2005 NUBC up. I’m even visible in at least one, but I’m not telling you which! Jet-lagged me is not an attractive me!
Gimme an RX!
Stealing quite liberally (and literally) from Jon Moreno over at the editors blog of the American Journal of Bioethics, a rather eye-opening piece in the New York Times:
T. Lynn Williamson, Ms. Napier’s cheering adviser at Kentucky, says he regularly gets calls from recruiters looking for talent, mainly from pharmaceutical companies. “They watch to see who’s graduating,” he said.
“They don’t ask what the major is,” Mr. Williamson said. Proven cheerleading skills suffice. “Exaggerated motions, exaggerated smiles, exaggerated enthusiasm – they learn those things, and they can get people to do what they want.” …
“There’s a lot of sizzle in it,” said Mr. Webb. “I’ve had people who are going right out, maybe they’ve been out of school for a year, and get a car and make up to $50,000, $60,000 with bonuses, if they do well.” Compensation sometimes goes well into six figures.
And the effect of very attractive salespeople making very unusual sales pitches in what quickly become somewhat flirtatious relationships is obvious:
Still, women have an advantage with male doctors, according to Jamie Reidy, a drug representative who was fired by Eli Lilly this year after writing a book lampooning the industry…
In an interview, Mr. Reidy remembered a sales call with the “all-time most attractive, coolest woman in the history of drug repdom.” At first, he said, the doctor “gave ten reasons not to use one of our drugs.” But, Mr. Reidy added: “She gave a little hair toss and a tug on his sleeve and said, ‘Come on, doctor, I need the scrips.’ He said, ‘O.K., how do I dose that thing?’ I could never reach out and touch a female physician that way.”
Stories abound about doctors who mistook a sales pitch as an invitation to more. A doctor in Washington pleaded guilty to assault last year and gave up his license after forcibly kissing a saleswoman on the lips.
One informal survey, conducted by a urologist in Pittsburgh, Dr. James J. McCague, found that 12 of 13 medical saleswomen said they had been sexually harassed by physicians. Dr. McCague published his findings in the trade magazine Medical Economics under the title “Why Was That Doctor Naked in His Office?”
Hello, double standards! If she makes a move on him, it’s flirty and her job. If he makes a move on her, it’s harassment! Welcome to the new age of “equality”.
Walking the Talk
For all my talk of the ease of cold-writing professors (and academics in general) after doing so a few times, it really never does get any easier, in those few seconds before hitting send. But, I cold wrote one professor (at Notre Dame) to ask about some things in his book, and see if he had any general recommendations for places to look at humanistic studies of social network theory. I also wrote a professor I’d been talking to back in May, and then lost contact with because I suck, and dropped off the face of the planet in end-of-quarter panic. Perhaps not the best thing in the world, given that I’d like to study with him in graduate school. Oh well – at least with him I was able to keep a casual, conversation tone, based on our prior mails (which largely focused on who we thought was going to win American Idol).
It’s 3:15am. It’s not Los Angeles. I’m not tired. Except that I am.
Sleep is an elusive beast.
Way to Perpetuate Stereotypes, Dr. Brothers!
DEAR DR. BROTHERS: I am concerned about a behavior my 12-year-old daughter has developed. Rachel is a very outgoing child and has developed a close group of friends through the years. I have noticed that she has gotten into the habit of being — in my opinion — overly demonstrative with her greeting of the girls and boys in her group. There is so much hugging and kissing (on both cheeks or in the air) that you would think they are long-lost relatives, instead of kids she has known her whole life. The other kids do not go nearly as overboard. Is this going to lead to trouble? — S.F.
DEAR S.F.: I am not sure what kind of trouble you foresee, but chances are your daughter will outgrow this behavior or curtail it if she starts hearing remarks from her friends, teachers or others that she is being too friendly or too dramatic with her greetings. Preteen kids in middle school are very much into cliques, and if your daughter’s natural bent is to be “larger than life” with her personality, this may be her natural way of showing her joie de vivre before she has to become all grown-up and “cool.”
Where the trouble could come in, as I see it, is if some boys start misinterpreting her behavior as flirtatious or leading them on. Your daughter probably doesn’t realize that her innocent exuberance could be mistaken for teasing in the hormone-charged atmosphere of middle-school youth. You might want to take her aside and make sure she is aware of what she is doing and caution her to be careful about being too free with her affection. It may sound old-fashioned, but she should reserve those personal kisses and hugs for very close friends so that she doesn’t get an undeserved reputation. She may also be showing off a little, doing some flirting with her buddies to see how it feels. It’s a good time to explain moderation!
Yeah, that’s helpful – let’s perpetuate old-fashioned stereotypes that a girl who’s affectionate and friendly must have an “undeserved reputation” – or that there is even such thing as a reputation to protect to begin with. Affection should only be shown in private, and for a few very close friends – moderate your emotions! Moderate your feelings!
And people say only boys are taught to repress their feelings.