Sanction

Elizabeth Bear's generation-ship saga continues with Sanction. I really disliked this book. Maybe because I loved the first book so much. I had high hopes for the excitement, and drama, and the sheer imagination inherent in the established setting/characters/history, and this book completely failed to deliver on every possible front.

Extreme spoilers below the break.

Sexual harrassment in academia

This post on sexual harrassment as a long con in academia is worth a signal boost.

As such, defeating sexual harassment... will require a fundamental restructuring of the way we do business, and a reeducation of our field—all of us—in matters related to the culture of science and academe. This will not be easy because our culture fosters a deep distrust and even hostility toward the "soft sciences" such as sociology and psychology that provide us with the best tools for addressing our pervasive inequities. But if we are truly interested in a meritocratic scientific community that makes full use of its talent pool to understand the Universe, we'll see this as a worthwhile investment. Until we do, there will be more stories filling more inboxes as we collectively shoot ourselves in the feet.

Thank you to the author, who used his male privilege to make a stink and write a post that would have received worse internet harassment, dismissal, and personal criticism if it had come from a woman.

This post's theme word is roue, "a debauched man, especially an elderly man from a wealthy or aristocratic family." The academic roue was booted in a rout!