South by Southwest: Women are good communicators

Watching the current NASA mission makes it clear that women are deeply involved in that effort, from the ground and in space. They are good communicators. I am currently listening to the female voice of NASA, who explains the images the TV audience is seeing, the work that is happening during the mission, and what will be coming up next. On the ground in the ISS control room, two women are currently in charge. One is the Flight Director and another is the "CapCom." In space crew members Stephanie Wilson and Lisa Nowak have also shown themselves to also be good communicators. Today they will be the robot arm operators.

"Women on the Internet" - Before writing this post, using that phrase as a search query yielded mixed results. I was not interested, for instance, in visiting the "Local girls live on video" site. Then I did a Dogpile search that queried, "women using the Internet." It got good results.

Here are a few interesting links:

Pew Research - on "How Women and Men Use the Internet" says that, "A wide-ranging look at the way American women and men use the internet shows that men continue to pursue many internet activities more intensively than women, and that men are still first out of the blocks in trying the latest technologies. At the same time, there are trends showing that women are catching up in overall use and are framing their online experience with a greater emphasis on deepening connections with people."
Blogs by Women - currently 1642 women bloggers listed on the site run by Jennifer, Angie and Mags.
Civil War Women - from today's post, "I started a blog on June 1 2006 on blogger.com, entitled Civil War Women. I’m writing biographies of women of the Civil War era. It occurred to me today that I am writing BLOGRAPHIES. Maybe I should rename my blog."
About Civil Liberties - Tom Head's list of "Top 10 Blogs on Feminism and Women's Rights"

Women as bloggers - Since I first started blogging, I have visited the sites of women bloggers, some on a regular basis, some only occasionally.
Over the years I have occasionally visited these women bloggers:

Journal of a Twentieth Century Woman, is by Canadian Jeanne Rittscher. It is the first blog I ever read when I first started all this. Mostly her personal journal, her writing style is interesting and has made me want to keep up with the lastest in her life over the years.
Mrs. Mogul, introduces herself as a "30-something New York gal living in London with her English husband plus a cute baby boy." Hers was the second blog I visited, so we all went through her getting pregnant, large, and giving birth. She is frank, funny, quirky and has a relatively large commenting readership to this her personal online journal.
Life as I Know It, by "Spinsterwitch, who works in social services in Oakland CA. She has a circle of regular readers who leave comments. Her style is open and self-revealing.
Reasonably Ascertainable Reality, by Katinula, is an interesting blog by a consultant living in "South Jersey," U.S. One of her recent posts is a useful link to the site "Online Integrity Statement of Principles."
The Broad View, mostly by Ellen Dana Nagler and Chiaroscuro, was discovered at the TPM Cafe website of Josh Marshall, as was Katinula's site. Thus it is has a Progressive political bent.

"Regulars" I read nearly every day include some famous and some not-so-famous writers :

Baghdad Burning, by "Riverbend," is the very popular website subtitled, "Girlblog from Iraq . . . let's talk war, politics and occupation." Riverbend is a prize winning writer, whose periodic essays are riveting windows into living in Baghdad as it burns. She pulls no punches. Here is a sample from yesterday's (7/11/06) post:

The day before yesterday was catastrophic. The day began with news of the killings in Jihad Quarter. According to people who live there, black-clad militiamen drove in mid-morning and opened fire on people in the streets and even in houses. They began pulling people off the street and checking their ID cards to see if they had Sunni names or Shia names and then the Sunnis were driven away and killed. Some were executed right there in the area. The media is playing it down and claiming 37 dead but the people in the area say the number is nearer 60.
The horrific thing about the killings is that the area had been cut off for nearly two weeks by Ministry of Interior security forces and Americans. Last week, a car bomb was set off in front of a 'Sunni' mosque people in the area visit. The night before the massacre, a car bomb exploded in front of a Shia husseiniya in the same area. The next day was full of screaming and shooting and death for the people in the area. No one is quite sure why the Americans and the Ministry of Interior didn't respond immediately. They just sat by, on the outskirts of the area, and let the massacre happen.

wonkette!, formerly by Ana Marie Cox, now by David Lat and Alex Pareene. Quoting from Wikipedia, " Wonkette is a blog published by Gawker Media that details the goings-on of the political establishment in Washington, DC. The site focuses heavily on gossip, humor, and the downfall of the powerful, as well as more "serious" matters of politics or policy."
Hoarded Ordinaries, by Dr. Lorianne DiSabato, who is a nature loving English instructor at Keene State College in New Hampshire. A bit quirky, she is a good photographer, wonderful at writing what she calls "place blogs," and always refreshing to read.
The Dishpan Chronicles, by "Kitchen Window Woman," writing from a canyon in California. Her posts come every few days and are worth the wait, because her short essays are very thoughtful and well written. She is a political Progressive who is middle aged, and whose favorite authors include Eric Hoffer, Amy Tan, Studs Terkel and Kurt Vonnegut.
Fayrouz In Beaumont, by Fayrouz Hancock, who lives with her newspaper photographer husband in Texas. Fay was born in Basra, Iraq, and left the country in 1994. She still has many Iraqi contacts, often including their communications in her well written blog. I have learned a great deal about Iraq from her, along with getting a close-up view of what it was like to go through Hurricane Rita.
maudnewton, by literary critic Maud Newton, focuses on politics, writing and writers, along with a few personal posts. She occasionally uses guest critics/bloggers. It is smart and fun, as well as very serious at times.
Make It Stop! Make It Stop!, by "LaPopessa," from "d of c" in the United States. Her site subtitle is, "The ramblings of a dangerous mind." Purely politics to the left, she pulls no punches, blogrolls others who also cut to the chase, and expresses herself very well. The blog look is white-on-black style.
r blog, by Rosie O'Donnel, actress/TV host/celebrity and thinker. She writes in a wonderfully unique manner that can break your heart. Quoting an example from March 29, 2006,
there is drama at the view . . .

star jones had weight loss surgery
she had part of her stomach bypassed
that is how she lost 1/2 herself

she refuses to say this
which is her right
but we do not have to pretend
we do not know

any fatty will tell u
it is nearly impossible to go
from where she was
to where she is
without medical intervention

dats da fact jack
and it is ok
talk to ur doctor
decide for yourself
if this is the option for u
by all means do it

it is hard to be fat
u get tired
ur knees hurt
people stare at u
think u less then
u feel less then

when i see one of r own
fly away from planet plus
i wave with misty eyes
proud astonished worried

we have a high recidivism rate
we us r tribe
sis and bros we
large

so star shrinks b4 our eyes
we know the truth
butnod as she talks about
pilates and will power

i am sure star jones
beneathe the beyonce bravado
is a scared lil girl
who grew her body big
strong and safe

there is no delete button
in real life

george bush
talking about the success
in iraq
with star like showmanship
he thinking we still believe
what we know is not true
we dont buy it

peace to star jones
every wave hits the shore