Saturday, November 29, 2014

The "Campaign for Participation" moving to a "Battle for Belonging"!

 I am submitting this to post on the blog of the Center for Women in Astronomy (yes, many male astronomers do post there):

Nothing shakes your sense of belonging more than being given the stron message that no one wants to talk with you ... unless it's being made to feel you cannot join any new group.
I am preparing a crowdfunding campaign to produce a documentary studying ostracism in astronomy, and I need help reviewing the draft pitch for crowdfunding.

Issues of retaliation and ostracism are important to members of the astronomy community who are concerned with issues that can stop scientists from pursuing science. Ostracism and retaliation can affect men and women, and can be ruinous to being in science, regardless of whether it comes from discrimination or from ``we just don't like you.''
Many of issues of concern cannot be adequately addressed if the community goes along with retaliation for reporting harrassive or discriminatory behavior.
No member of the community can be ostracized for reporting issues related to abuse or discrimination of any kind.

A documentary on ostracism will be able to show how ostracism and retaliation lead to imposter syndrome, the subject of an upcoming session at the AAS meeting. A full discussion of imposter syndrome must include a discussion of how imposter syndrome is likely to be felt by a target of
ostracism or retaliation, especially the ostracized job searcher, who might be called an ``imposter'' job applicant due to having to cover up disruption of previous research. The fear of ostracism would certainly be a major driver of feeling inadequate. It is also essential to this discussion to consider the effect on the skills development of a target of ostracism. How can a target of ostracism job search not feel like a terrible imposter, when a person's group
has thrown him or her out and intentionally blocked any more skills development or paper credits?

I ask for the community's support to help me crowdfund by first helping with the writing, and then helping spread publicity of this documentary once the crowdfunding site is launched.
(I do not seek contributions from astronomers here, since astronomers are not rich, but rather need help getting support from the larger community
that loves astronomy.)

Please leave comments of how to improve my pitch here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1807739139/1899930498?token=be35c64f

I seek to participate in the discussion on imposter syndrome at the next AAS meeting, as well as contribute the topics of ostracism and retaliation
for the planned series of sessions on ethical issues.
However, I have been unemployed for many years, and have no way of paying for attending the AAS meeting unless I get support from the public through crowdfunding. I hope to use this documentary and campaign as a means of overcoming the obstructions keeping me out of astronomy.

Belonging and participation are essential values that should have wide appeal in the science community as well as the general public. I am discussing many issues that are covered in AAS ethics statements, but also many essential ethical issues that are left uncovered.

Please leave comments on how to improve my pitch. I need as much support as I can get to overcome opposition to me being in the group, so that I can be a part of the astronomy community.

I hope the community will support my efforts to do a documentary as well as take back my role in research so that I can return to being a productive and supported member of the community. I hope that whatever means I develop to overcome ostracism, retaliation, and imposter syndrome will be of value to future scientists seeking to participate in astronomy!

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Come to Hong Kong and Shop Local!

If you travel internationally, or know someone who does, then consider how visiting Hong Kong can help support democracy. You can visit the protests: they are peaceful, pleasant, and a fascinating show of mixing good art into civic participation. It's a once in a lifetime chance to being a part of history.

Hong Kong small businesses need people to support them since China has cut off tour groups to Hong Kong, and the road blockages has meant some people from the outskirts of Hong Kong (such as the New Territories) have avoided coming into Hong Kong's shopping areas. Don't worry, you can take the subway everywhere, even though bus and tram service has been partly obstructed by roads and freeways being used for civic activity instead of vehicle traffic.

Hong Kong is a great place to visit. Many locals speak English, and locals often volunteer to help translate if you do want to buy something from someone who doesn't (Most tourist oriented shops and stands are staffed by English speaking sales staff, but the sweet older lady selling fruit may not). Try the local restaurants and sample the Cantonese cuisine. They'll have someone to help you in English.

Make it a point to come into the city if you have an airline transfer. It's an easy to get around city, with helpful people, cheap taxis, and a great subway. Here's my video to promote my message:

Video Link: Visit Hong Kong and shop local! (http://youtu.be/URC6N3jN8sU)

Come to Hong Kong and shop local!

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Hong Kong Tiananmen Square Anniversary Vigil: Will Hong Kong get "One-person One-Vote"?

The mood was electric yesterday in Hong Kong's Victoria Park, when I joined what must have been the largest energized crowd I had ever been in. There were so many people that it is hard to believe the police estimate of there being 99,500 people present. That number is too suspicious: 500 short of 100,000?

Hong Kongers were energized by more than a crackdown 25 years ago in Beijing: many here want "universal suffrage", or in simpler words, "one-man one vote," for Hong Kong's local rule. Many are worried that the special freedoms granted to Hong Kongers is being challenged by pressure from "the mainland."

So I believe that the organizers estimate of 180,000 people is closer to the mark. Regardless, on many Sundays, many Hong Kongers fill Queen's road and march for universal suffrage. They want to elect their representatives directly, without having their legislators appointed by groups that are often loyal to the Chinese communist party.

It is interesting to see firsthand the evolution of the freedoms of people who have not had democracy. You don't see it explained very much in terms of the history of why Hong Kong didn't inherit democratic local rule from the British. As I remember it, Britain didn't grant Hong Kong local self-rule until it was instituted by the last British Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten. When Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997, China replaced this democratic system with a complex system in which only some of the legislators are voted in.

I have a few pictures of the event, including one of me with a Hong Konger who had just been born in 1989. He is holding the candle that had been held by his girlfriend, born after the events in 1989. (It was a long workday for my wife.) I have friends who have more. I have pictures of only two of the many fields covered with people. I mostly took pictures as the event was winding down -- I should have taken pictures of the big crowds going down to the subway to go home, to give a sense of the large numbers of people spread over a very big area.

A picture from the Associate Press,  in the New York Times, which must have been taken from somewhere up above on the hill, shows many fields covered with people against the beautiful sunset on 2014 June 4.








Monday, March 10, 2014

Revealing new worlds, the story and discovery

I have the story of my campaign to participate in science told as a metaphor of how our image of the dwarf planet Pluto will go from fuzzy to clear next year, just as my participation in science will go from fuzzy to clear as I have derived further proof of my finding that giant planets going into stars is what shapes the distribution of the large planets closest to stars.

Last week, I told my story in public with the Hong Kong Story Tellers telling the story of the history of my passion for science, using the analogy of how I was inspired to see new worlds go from fuzzy to clear as a statement on how I now struggle to make my participation in science become clear.

I post this story here:  http://youtu.be/YFHVrPucoGI,

I talk about how my interest in space started with being fascinated by the
art in a 2nd grade science book. The otherworldly vistas of what it must look
like on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn (and others) captured my childhood
imagination, driving me to the library to find read photographs of these
moons, only to be disappointed to find the only real pictures showed
these moons as only tiny dots. But this was the best time in history for
a disappointed child: it wasn't called the space age without good reason.

I chronicled the unveiling of poster-size pictures of this planets in
parallel with my own journey in science, leading to me studying exoplanets.
I make the parallel of me staying in even being unemployed, with the
picture of my participation made fuzzy.

I lead up to the other accomplishment: My discovery that planets must
be going into the star, like the proverbial lemmings marching over a cliff.
I have now derived the math that shows that the rate of planets going into
the star is so low that this ``planet flow'' must be what is shaping the
distribution of the inner-most giant planets, the planets with the shortest
periods, even periods less than one day.

For now, until I finish writing my paper on planet flow,
I have posted the equation on a popular physics forum: http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=665721

Cheer me on to take back my participation in science!
I am campaigning to promote the idea that sharing
participation is the purpose of science, because
participation is the purpose of life!