This is one of the ending themes from "Natsume's Book of Friends" (Natsume Yuujinchou).

Happy Halloween people!

[link]

That’s the conclusion of a new study in PNAS by Corinne Moss-Racusin and collaborators at Yale. (Hat tip Dan Vergano.) To test scientist’s reactions to men and women with precisely equal qualifications, the researchers did a randomized double-blind study in which academic scientists were given application materials from a student applying for a lab manager position. The substance of the applications were all identical, but sometimes a male name was attached, and sometimes a female name.

Results: female applicants were rated lower than men on the measured scales of competence, hireability, and mentoring (whether the scientist would be willing to mentor this student). Both male and female scientists rated the female applicants lower.

I wish I was surprised but this, but I'm not. In my own grad school experience, I encountered male peers (and even a couple professors) who made a point to try to make me feel inferior. One that stands out most was a professor who's class I was wanting to use in my research sample. I came to talk to him about it and the first thing he said was that my study was stupid and doesn't prove anything. Excuse me? I didn't come here to ask if you liked my research topic. I just want to survey students in this area of coursework. As if his first comment wasn't enough, he made a point to be difficult throughout the entire research process.

Out with the old, in with the new!

So we saw a lot of unfamiliar plants and animals while we were out and about in Hawaii, so here's some of them (I'm glad I figured out the birds!):

Animals

• Common Myna - These things were everywhere. For every 10 birds we saw, usually at least 5 were one of these.
• Red-crested Cardinal - We didn't see so many of these, but they are very pretty. The ones we saw were feeding their big babies.
• Zebra Dove - These guys were the quiet non-confrontational ones.
• Grey Francolin - We only saw these a few times overall. They are pretty big and didn't seem to like flying really. They lived in the flowering bushes near our room.
• Nēnē (Hawaiian Goose) - We saw a big baby one near the summit of Haleakalā. So cute~
• Small Asian Mongoose - We saw one running away when we were at the black sand beaches. It looks like a ferret.
• House Sparrow - Not that uncommon here at home, but they were everywhere. They are frequent guests at the restaurants, waiting for scraps.

Plants

• Red Ginger - Not terribly common. They were on the wetter parts of the island.
• Silversword - They are pretty rare. We only saw them at the top of the volcano.
• Plumeria - These were trees with dark green leaves and bunches of white flowers. Most of the ones we saw were white/yellow, but we did find one pink/yellow. And yes, the flower petals feel and look a little like foam.
• Bougainvillea - These were kind of like large poinsettia-like shrubs. The purple "petals" were the leaves nearest the flower.
• Heliconia - I got a stem of this from the flower lady on our tour. The ends of the petals are really pointy.
• Adenium - We saw this near the Banyan tree as well. :)
• Banyan Tree - We saw the same one as mentioned in the link. Roots that look like vines grow down from the branches to establish new trunks. But all of the trunks are all connected together.