Romney loses election

[DinoDoc]

It's funny, in the UK doctors and teachers are two of the professions held in the highest regard. In the US they never seem to receive the same kind of appreciation.

Excuse me I have to prepare for my call to Guy's house in the middle of the night about a phantom ailment a child is suffering through.

[Lorizael]

It is worth mentioning that young women now do significantly better in the schooling system now than young men do. I suspect that in my generation, women will be more successful in plenty of areas than men are.

As I understand it, a lot of that has to do with the current teaching paradigm, which actually seems to (unintentionally) discriminate against stereotypical male behavior. It's great that women are doing better, but it would be better still if men and women were both doing great.

There's also still a great disparity between men and women in STEM stuff. Take my current semester.

World Lit: 12 men, 9 women
Calc 2: 19 men, 11 women
Physics: 7 men, 2 women

[regexcellent]

Yes. Man sperm still aren't recognized as having the same rights

I'm talking about nobility.

[MRT144]

It is worth mentioning that young women now do significantly better in the schooling system now than young men do. I suspect that in my generation, women will be more successful in plenty of areas than men are.

Until they dominate STEM then it's a nothing burger.

[Jaguar]

What if women just don't want to take STEM courses? Why not just leave them alone and let them decide what they want to do? For example, they seem to like becoming lawyers and doctors; law school and med school enrollment is about 50-50. They also seem to like getting grad degrees in education, nursing, and the humanities.

Women do well in school - slightly better than men, even - and they just actively choose some paths over others. Why make a fuss over it?

[Lorizael]

What if women just don't want to take STEM courses? Why not just leave them alone and let them decide what they want to do? For example, they seem to like becoming lawyers and doctors; law school and med school enrollment is about 50-50. They also seem to like getting grad degrees in education, nursing, and the humanities.

Women do well in school - slightly better than men, even - and they just actively choose some paths over others. Why make a fuss over it?

The problem is that it's difficult to disentangle what women want from the vestiges of institutional sexism. I'm not sure that we're at the point yet where we can say with certainty that what women choose to do career-wise necessarily represents what they want to do. Yes, whatever choice they make is their revealed preference, blah blah, but if women perceive there to be only unpalatable choices, then their revealed preferences aren't particularly authentic.

[Jaguar]

It's a valid hypothesis, but go back to the question of "what should we do about it?"

Suppose a young lady is considering school in biomedical engineering (more male-dominated) and nursing (very female-dominated.) She believes she'd definitely prefer to be a nurse, and her coursework is slightly better for nursing. Suppose a young man is considering the same things, but his preferences and academic record are reversed. He's just a bit better at BME, and he believes he'd prefer it.

You're an admissions officer, and you've got one spot at each school. Which ones would you admit them to?

[Hauldren Collider]

I don't know the answer to Jaguar's questions, but my best friend just transferred to the biomedical engineering program at UVA (she intends to go to med school after she graduates). The Women Engineering Society just gave her a free shirt that says "Be the Engineer Your Mom Wanted You to Marry." She's quite fond of it.

I do think that is perfectly fine that women have different preferences than men. I think the lack of women in certain fields is probably mostly attributable to this. As long as there are no actual barriers, I see no problem with the discrepancy between men an women in various fields.

[Jaguar]

There are valid reasons to admit the man to nursing and admit the woman to BME. I'm just curious whether you (a) have them, and (b) believe in them strongly enough to subvert the two peoples' revealed preferences.

[Kuciwalker]

I do think that is perfectly fine that women have different preferences than men. I think the lack of women in certain fields is probably mostly attributable to this.

No, it's mostly attributable to the fact that some large fraction of men in these fields are socially crippled, sexist, and unlikeable.

[Hauldren Collider]

Well, that's certainly the case at CMU.

[kentonio]

Good to see the extreme right are being honest about their feelings again.

Obama chair lynchings in Texas and Virginia

Two people may have single-handedly set back civil liberties by nearly 100 years by hanging Obama effigies in their yards. The chairs, on display at two Centreville, Va., and Austin, Texas, homes, are a reference to Clint Eastwood’s chair speech, and conjure memories of mob lynchings once common in the South. Technically, it’s a free country, and it’s their right, but the symbolism behind the actions of just a few is disturbing for the rest of America.

Burnt Orange reports that when one woman complained to the Texas homeowner, he said, “I don’t really give a damn whether it disturbs you or not. You can take [your concerns] and go straight to hell and take Obama with you. I don’t give a ****. If you don’t like it, don’t come down my street.” The man has since added an American flag to the chair.

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/20/invi...air_lynchings/

[Kuciwalker]

That's too hilarious to be offensive.

[kentonio]

But on the bright side, look who the Republicans could have ended up with..

Rick Perry: Church and state is Satan’s fault

Texas Gov. Rick Perry knows who we have to blame for that whole “separation of church and state” thing: Satan.

“Satan runs across the world with his doubt and with his untruths and what have you and one of the untruths out there that is driven is that people of faith should not be involved in the public arena,” Perry said during a evangelical conference call this week, put together by the Rev. Rick Scarborough.

He continued: “Somehow or another there’s this, ya know, steel wall, this iron curtain or whatever you want to call it between the church and people of faith and this separation of church and state is just false on its face. We have a biblical responsibility to be involved in the public arena proclaiming God’s truth.”

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/20/rick..._satans_fault/

[Jaguar]