Google Santa Tracker Is Back

theodp writes: Google Santa Tracker is back, notes the Official Google Blog, and kids can brush up on their computer skills there with new coding games throughout the month. If they want to explore more Google coding projects, Santa Tracker advises kids to visit Made With Code, where they can learn how to "design a ZAC Zac Posen dress that turns heads and lights up a room." Made with Code, Google explains in its FAQS, is part of the company's $90M mission to creatively engage girls with code. Last year, Made With Code teamed with the National Park Service to make the lighting of the White House Christmas trees a girls-only coding project.

Comments

Girls only

[Anonymous Coward]

Boys graduate college at much lower rates than girls, get locked up at much higher rates (and for longer on average for the same crime), usually lose their kids and have to pay alimony and child support in a divorce (even if the women initiates and even in cases where she cuckolded him),
work longer hours (that's largely where the wage discrepancy comes from), and are still socially obligated to pay for things for their women
But yeah, girls need another advantage. Because girl power! And if you disagree with this you're sexist. And a rapist. And that's guilty until proven innocent on that rape charge, and even if it's proven innocent, your reputation is still tarnished. Girl power!

Re:Girls only

[AmiMoJo]

The point about graduation rates is not percentages, it's that everyone who wants to has an opportunity to do so. It seems like boys could do with a little more encouragement in some areas, but then again so could girls in others. It's too complex a subject to be boiled down to a sentence.

If you feel socially obligated to pay for stuff, then why not push back? I don't subscribe to that and I don't have any trouble on dates (although I'm in a long term relationship now). Maybe it's because I'm an interesting person and am not just looking to get into the girl's pants by "paying" for sex with an expensive date.

You should push for better working conditions for men too. It's one reason why I'm a feminist - you could accurately describe this stuff as "men's rights", but that term has turned into such a shitstorm that it's better to just say you are a feminist because those are the actual values and philosophy you are following. I won't do long hours and discourage others from doing them, and will argue strongly against anything that rewards people for screwing up their work/life balance.

Re:Girls only

[PopeRatzo]

Boys graduate college at much lower rates than girls, get locked up at much higher rates (and for longer on average for the same crime), usually lose their kids and have to pay alimony and child support in a divorce (even if the women initiates and even in cases where she cuckolded him),

See, but here's the thing about this Google Santa Tracker: Santa Claus isn't real. So the joke's on the stupid girls.

Re:Girls only

[AthanasiusKircher]

The point about graduation rates is not percentages, it's that everyone who wants to has an opportunity to do so. It seems like boys could do with a little more encouragement in some areas, but then again so could girls in others.

It's also important to note that both sexes are graduating college at the highest rates EVER in the U.S. (See, for example, graphs here and here, showing percentages of young people with bachelor's degrees over the past few decades.)

It's true that the growth in women's graduation rates has gone up faster than men's, and now women do graduate at greater rates than men. But men are still graduating at higher rates than EVER before.

So, we can debate what these numbers mean and whether they are a disturbing trend. Maybe men need more motivation. Or maybe women realize that a pay gap still exists -- for whatever reason. Even if that pay gap is mostly because women don't tend to like to work ridiculously long hours and because they take off a few years from careers to raise kids or whatever... even IF that's the reason for the pay gap, women still have an incentive to try to earn more, and college degrees are known to help with that.

So, maybe both sexes are making rational choices here? Maybe men are going to college at greater rates than ever, because they realize the opportunities it provides. But perhaps more men are willing to have a go at a career without the degree, figuring that they can make up for it with long hours and hard work, etc. Whereas women have a stronger incentive to pursue the degree, since it allows them a better start and a greater chance of overcoming the pay gap (no matter what the cause of that pay gap is).

Maybe. I'm not saying this is the explanation, but it's one way to look at it. Or maybe we should be concerned about the fact that men's graduation rates aren't growing as fast as women's. But one thing we need to recognize is the BOTH SEXES are graduating at higher rates -- it's just that the men's growth is slower.

It's too complex a subject to be boiled down to a sentence.

Agreed. And that goes for many of the issues in GP's rant. For example, regarding women getting custody of children in divorces, it used to be the case that there was something called the tender years doctrine where courts would award custody to women by default (particularly for young children).

But the vast majority of states have now passed laws requiring parents to be treated equally. The problem in most divorces is the same one GP mentions about "working long hours." Courts are predisposed to assure continuity for kids. If the mother has been the primary caregiver and the father has basically been absent except for a couple hours on weekends, it's harder to argue that the children should be forced to go with the father.

Is this "fair"? Maybe not in some cases. But there is a logic to saying that if a father hasn't been there for his kids for years, that expecting him to raise them by himself may be more difficult both on him and the kids.

So -- here's a bit of advice for fathers. I've seen a lot of bad divorces happen among friends, family, colleagues, etc. Spend time with your kids. Seriously. If you love them, take the time and do stuff with them while they're small. You may think that "if I just work a little longer tonight" or "if I just come in on Saturday" then you'll get the promotion and get more money and whatever. Guess what? Most kids just want to see their dad. The extra money you might get rarely makes up for being gone all the time.

And if you

Re:Girls only

[AthanasiusKircher]

Sorry to self-reply, but I messed up one of the links. Here's a link to another story with graphs that have more recent (and long-term) data on college graduation rates.

Re:Girls only

[vel-ex-tech]

This topic again. I wasn't sure where I wanted to reply, but I'll put it here.

Here are my grievances:

1. My genitals were mutilated at birth, leaving me with horrific physical pain from puberty until I decided to take matters into my own hands. My GP at the time couldn't find any evidence of anything being physically wrong and believe that it could be I was experiencing the pain because of my female mind. Later, when I saw a psychologist, he decided that there was really no way to sort out my feelings about my gender from the physical pain I experienced.

2. I was nearly prosecuted for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act after having run a computer club for a year and a half solely because I was assigned the male gender and the school district wanted to claim that their first computer club was founded by somebody assigned the female gender at birth.

3. At college orientation, it was explained very clearly that I was a rapist who had merely not been caught yet, and that the best thing for me to do would be to avoid interaction with women. I'm not attracted to women anyhow, but it was distressing that solely because of my assigned gender at birth I would be considered a violent criminal with access to illegal drugs and that any unsupervised contact with women would cause me to be suspected of criminal intentions.

4. Later on, in the "real world," I was accused of being part of a conspiracy to prevent women from learning programming. That was before this "SJW" (or whatever) crap started being A Thing on the internet. It hurt me deeply that somebody would seriously believe that my intentions were sexist based solely on the gender I've been forced to present as all these years. (This will change, all though I've no idea whether I'll die homeless in a gutter after it does change.)

5. I mentor women programmers. Do you? I have done everything one could reasonably expect of somebody who has barely managed a lower-middle class income to help women programmers. Have you? In fact, if not for the outright gender discrimination I experienced while in school, I might be making significantly more.

6. I apparently no longer have access to a regular doctor because after my old doctor retired and by the time I sought out another doctor, a women's health initiative (I had essentially been forced to be a part of due to my employment and the failure of any cisfemale colleagues who actually were in customer-service roles to step up to the job) went under due to Obamacare. I believe what I'm facing is a combination of "religious objection!" and the idea that because I am forced to present as the male gender and currently program computers has sparked the conclusion that I want to control women's bodies and deny them healthcare.

So, AmiMoJo, how will feminism help me out here? I really want to know. I scrambled my old UID because a very bright young woman who had shown incredible talent with programming revealed to me that she was a feminist, hence giving me direct, first-hand evidence that my ideas of feminism had been tainted. This may lead to another grievance:

7. The increasing pressure on geeks like me, who aren't even heterosexual, who aren't even cisgendered, to do something! about the lack of cisfemale programmers, while I watch gaslighting asshole managers push women out of programming jobs. That feminist I mentioned was one woman who was chased out. Another was a personal friend. A third may be me, because when I begin living as the gender I was actually born as, I won't be in tech any more. Why is there no pressure on the gaslighting asshole misogynist managers.

I reported one for sexual harassment, and I encouraged one of those women to file a gender discrimination lawsuit that she may actually win. What have you done?

8. TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists). They are also part of the reason I'm just going to leave tech. There are too many cisgendered women who will see me as an invader and metaphysical rapist and cause office drama when I do transition. I can't change what gender I was assigned at birth. I can change my line of work. So, I'm leaving.

Feminism is clearly many different things to many different people. Any help here?

Re: Girls only

[ranton]

When challenged, absolutely NO ONE seems to be able to provide proof of a "brogrammer" culture that people seem to cite when they talk about the numbers of women in "tech".

I am a white male in his 30's, so I don't have to worry about any of this. But I see my female coworkers who cannot get a client to believe they are competent because they are women. I see their ideas attributed to the first man who publicly agrees with them (I have had to explicitly remind people in a meeting that an idea originated with a female coworker). I see similar cultural influences that tell African American men being smart isn't cool tell women that being nerdy isn't feminine. I also see women who have a hard time finding professionals they can identify within a workforce that is so heavily male dominated.

I could go on, but it doesn't matter. If you still don't see the inequality of opportunity in the IT field towards women after years of the industry starting to come to terms with it, you are willfully trying to ignore the problem.

Thus spake Zarathustra.

[minkowski76]

"Made With Code teamed with the National Park Service to make the lighting of the White House Christmas trees a girls-only coding project." Discrimination is morally-justified when it's really just revenge dressed up as diversity.

Re:Girls only coding project?

[Anonymous Coward]

The first compiler was developed by a woman, Grace Hopper.

Even Santa can't escape Google's cookie tracking

[JoeyRox]

Rumor has it that Santa started using Ad Block this Christmas season.

oy

[cascadingstylesheet]

I hate to break this to you, but Google is not eager to pay girls lots of money. They want to flood the market.

Elephant in the room:

[sabbede]

Christmas is a Christian holiday (at heart anyhow). Santa is the most visible symbol of the holiday. Therefore, Santa is a likely target for ISIS. Google is publicizing Santa's location.

tf: Google is putting Santa in danger!!!!