Comments on: BLAST! (2008)

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:41:59 +0000

Matthew – Thanks for stopping by. The work you and your colleagues did on this project is to be commended, and I find your revelation of the source of this humor enlightening. It’s a classic “taken out of context” moment, and one I think you have reason to complain about. Unfortunately, it’s all too comprehensible to me why this edit was made as it was, and certainly doesn’t reflect on you.

By: Matthew Truch

Matthew Truch — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 11:30:22 +0000

Joe – As the member of the “camera crew” who made that “crack”, I can fully understand where all the comments on this matter are coming from. It was one of the most “interesting” parts of being recorded for a documentary… parts of your everyday life are cut, edited, and spliced together to make a movie because a movie can’t show you everything. They don’t show you that the “camera crew” were Marie’s friends (at least fellow grad students, but I’m proud to call Marie a friend), nor do they show you that previously, other aspects of the project are referred to as some of the male grad students’ girlfriends. It’s an inside joke we have to refer to the things that keep us away from our significant others late at night when we’re pulling the stereotypical grad students’ long hours.

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:55:06 +0000

Joe – There may be something in what you say, but in fact, there’s a lot of evidence that girls are steered away from math and science in school. I’ve actually known a lot of women in business who’d rather be at work than at home with their families.

By: Joe Valdez

Joe Valdez — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:42:29 +0000

Your comment about the crack Marie Rex gets from the camera crew perfectly illustrates why men vastly outnumber women in the sciences. Women have social lives. They have jobs, but based on what I’ve seen and heard, women don’t want to BE their jobs.
The hyper focus that it takes to be a geek, while sacrificing relationships, a healthy diet and hygiene does not seem to appeal to many women, as far as I can see. It’s time the sciences were introduced to a different type of geek.

By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:37:54 +0000

Thank you for the pointer, Marilyn. Like Greg, I’ll see this courtesy of your link. Back in biosystems grad school, in the late seventies and early eighties, I had an 8-inch Newtonian, and spent a lot of time looking at the sky, and a lot of time reading up on astrophysics (I’m now hopelessly out of date on the latest research and etc.)
By the way, I’ve always found the “order in nature” argument among the weakest for the existence of God. Perhaps because I know very well there are other ways that order can be achieved.

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:24:45 +0000

Greg – If I had been better at math, I would have pursued a career in physics. (On Facebook, that’s the answer to one of the “How Well Do You Know Marilyn Ferdinand?” questions.) I took an astronomy class in college that I nearly flunked, but I still loved it.

By: Greg F

Greg F — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:51:22 +0000

You’re an astrophysics junkie too? I didn’t know that. You know I am right? I’ve mentioned my love of science and astronomy a few times on my blog. Thanks for the heads up on this. I’m usually out of the loop on documentaries outside of the political ones despite my love for them. Like Gabriel Over the White House this will not go on a three year waiting list but will be watched tomorrow morning (online, thanks to your link). I can hardly wait.