Definately agreed. Luckily my mom was a math major who just pushed (and shoved and yelled and stuffed) the value of education and brainpower in general and in all fields and my dad recognized that my brain worked along his engineering-y lines despite my lack of a y-chromosome, so I was fell into math/science in general and comp sci in particular fairly early on.
However, I have run into elementary school teachers who were *dumbfounded* because they organized their classroom with the quiet, polite, well-behaved, completely unassertive little girls who did art projects on one side and the rowdy, loud, roughousing, boys who did math on the other.... and had NO. FUCKING. CLUE. where I was supposed to go. I also encountered a family in high school who had a son who was mathy and a daughter who was not. My calc teacher (female) asked the parents why they thought that was, and their reply was along the lines of "well, isn't that how it's supposed to be?" Ms. Vick (who, despite her additional and more feminine role as school choreographer, is *not* quiet or unassertive) went more than moderately bonkers. And there was much rejoicing.
I ran into some jerkwads occaisionally who did the "you shouldn't be good in math, stop it" routine. My response as a child was generally one of "whaaaaaaa?" Luckily my folks got to me first... it wasn't until I was past my most impressionable years that I fully realized that some people out there genuinely believed that my boobies meant that I couldn't be counted on to add 2 and 2. Also, I tend to be somewhat socially oblivious (still am), and I often didn't pick up on the fact (until and unless pointed out) that my gender was causing some people issues. The combination of these factors meant that I never came close to internalizing that particular gender role.
There are mental differences between males and females. Some of these are nature, and some nurture. One of the ones that *does* appear to be at least largely a native difference is the fact that females tend to notice and respond to subtler social cues than males are, which is unfortunate if the cues discourage them from being as productive as possible. Luckily, this is a generalization and a gradient, and it's when you get the female that is on the thick-as-a-brick end of the spectrum (aka, me) that getting beyond gender norms is more likely.
Math abilities may well be on a similar gradient, much like physical strength: males on average may be better at solving complex algorithms, but just as there are females that can out-bench-press many males, so there are females that can work and thrive in 'masculine' roles. And there are males that can do just as well in 'feminine' roles. So what? Just let everyone do what they personally are suited for. It's not that complicated. Basically, we as a society just need to stop being so silly!
Of course, and speaking of silliness, I would like to point out that, if one is attempting to recruit females, one would be better off going after those that have *not* completely bought into their roles in life. For the love of Taco, the target females are NOT bloody well watching soap operas!
Very true. I know other females who would prefer it, too. Wtf.
I made a comment earlier about a LAN party where some asshat asked who my boyfriend was, as I obviously wasn't there for my own gaming sake. Later on at that same LAN, a bunch of females, the girlfriends of some of the guys playing, showed up. A few of them sat down at the computers for a short while for the apparant purpose of acting cute, stupid, and gigglishly incompetent, laughingly telling their boyfriends how they could never play these games well, and then went over to the kitchen and baked them cookies.
If I see a game as being marketed specifically at females, my initial response is to avoid it like the plague. Barbie Horse Adventures, anyone? I'll take Morrowind, Cod, WOW, civiv, starcraft.... you name it, anyday.
That said, there are differences (be they biological or social) between the average male and the average female gamer. But I think that one of the biggest is that even a reasonably dorky and hard-core gaming female, like myself, tends to be repulsed by or at best "tunes out" the sophomoric sexuality present in many games. I'm used to it now, and I'm not a prude by any means, but it still breaks the spell of, say, Morrowind, to find a random strip club. And Ivy from Soul Calibur is an awesomely powerful high tier character, but no physical person could move let alone fight with that amount of jiggle and wedgie. Back in middle school I actually stopped playing Duke Nukem because I found the strippers annoying as all hell, though I found the rest of the humor quite amusing.
Like I said, I'm used to it now, but trying to get females into buying games is made much more challenging by the alienation that stems from games seeming to be aimed at males only. This is due both to game design and gamer culture. A game that prominantly features boob jigglage and the lan party asshat asking who your boyfriend is since you obviously can't be there to play games yourself tend to be major buzz-kills.
I just think most females would gladly play the same games as males, if there wasn't that initial alienation. Luckily there's an awesome group of folks at my school who I can play COD, Soul Cal, WoW, Starcraft, or Karaoke fucking Revolution with if I so choose (and have time).
And now I return to my tech desk job repairing computers. That's the other thing. If someone actually taught these sorority girls how to actually use (and not ABuse) their !$!@#$!@$!@#%@# machines, things would be a lot better for women-in-gaming and for me in the specific.
....but even if all the females on campus became tech-savvy, we'd still have had the guy with the canine bukkake videos...
I think the scarier thing is that someone took the time to search for a duping.....unless you actually remembered a Slashdot story from 5 years ago. Impressive, but very scary.
...go to the CSI website and think it looked a lot like the San Diego Comic-Con website? Between the superheroes and the very very similar color scheme? Or am I just crazy?
Personally, I'd not want to have my name connected to Bonzi Buddy, CoolWebSearch, MyFunWeb, PokaPoka, FunWebProducts, SuperSparklyHappyFunMagicWebTime (ok, so haven't seen that one yet, but I'm expecting it soon), or any of the 10,000 other similarly stupidly named ones we run into.
But that didn't stop some other sonovabitchwhowilldiediedieslowwwwwwwwly (haven't decided yet between impalement, draw-and-quartering, rabid dingos, or some combination thereof (Why, yes, I work at a tech desk. However did you guess?)) from writing it.
I see the case for there being a "trick of the mind" in normal statistical variation.
But, if I have iTunes on random play of my whooooooole library, and if almost every time during a given session pressing the "next track" button after an unwanted song makes it play, in order, the exact same five or so songs , somethin's a little weird, methinks
By that, I mean I support, as a general rule, a small government, the rights and liberties of the individual, a certain degree of antifederalism, decency and honor in public discourse, the philosophical traditions (scientific, rational, and drawn from the Enlightenment) of the Founders (US-centric), and believe that, within reason, "the government has no place in the boardroom or the bedroom".
This should explain why I marked California's "I Decline to State a Political" Party on my voting registration;-)
Heh. The only actual protest that's occurred on my (smallish liberal arts) campus in the two years I've been there was organized by the Conservative Club and was targeted at the school's change in alchohol policy.
You can have a trial and still protect the operatives.
Don't turn it into a media circus. Sequester the jury. Let them decide if the evidence, some of which would be presented without revealing the source, holds water. Put him in solitary if convicted.
I agree that he sounds like a scumbag. I agree that, in all likelihood, he's guilty. But he should still. get. a. trial.
And taking a risk on outing an operative in order to preserve someone's right to trial is orders of magnitude away from delibarately releasing a name.
Heh... my boyfriend's roommate (setGender(female); setAge(collegeStudent);) got a call from a Navy recruiter. He wasn't really interested, but was polite, and talked with the guy until his roommates got on the phone and started messing around, making odd noises and the like.
So the guy tells the Navy guy he needs to go and "shove a phone up his roommate's ass" (meant in the joking sense of punishing the other guys for being obnoxious).
The Navy guy called back, and none of them answered the phone. So they now have a rather amusing message on their answering machine that goes something like:
"Uh, sir, the Navy has a don't-ask, don't-tell policy, and you just confessed to partaking in homosexual behavior, so, uh... Have fun, uh, (slightly miffed, with audible quote marks) 'shoving a bone up your roommate's ass'. Goodbye."
Depends on the service, I think. Air Force pilots (which I had wanted to be as a kid... big fast machines), yeah. But I did army ROTC for a semester (I'm an engineer, and just didn't have time for all the commitments), and they had no problems with me needing an inhaler.
I don't mean to bash teachers. I have the utmost appreciation and respect for the horrors and nonsense presented daily by students, parents, administrators, required tests, and the like. The teachers who make it past those 3 years are overworked, underpaid, stressed, burnt-out, tormented, and are ultimately the victims in this scenario.
But to those who don't teach, who don't understand what you're going through, who have tried to learn under teachers who have been forced into a mental state unconducive to teaching, the perception is that teachers are part of the problem.
Again, the teachers are definately victims, as well. The system as a whole needs to be reworked, rather than have blame assigned exclusively to any one group. But often it's ignorance and bad experience, not malice, that leads to teacher-bashing.
The plane didn't hit its target, and so killed only those on board rather than however many might have been in another skyscraper or strategic target. I'd say that was a pretty effective defense, and lowered the appeal of using the same tactic again.
But I definately agree with the cockpit-locking. And the pilot-arming.
My mother flew out to visit over the 4th. During her flight, the pilot had to go to the bathroom. Now, when you gotta go you gotta go, but instructing the whole plane to remain seated and blocking the aisle to the open cockpit door with a trash can isn't exactly effective security....
Heh... speaking as a female tech, even if you hadn't already known their gender, the first guess would be so much more likely it's not worth arguing over.
Wasn't there an act of Parliament (/me == American, but they're the ones that compiled this gibberish of a language in the first place) that "he", "his", etc. could, for the sake of preventing linguistic awkwardness, be used for either gender?
Personally, I tend to use either the masculine or the third person plural in the singular (they, their, etc) if I'm uncertain of gender. The former more often in male-dominated areas (Slashdot, my workplace, my engineering department, lan parties, online gaming, y'all know what I mean).
Of course, there's also the question of the security concerns regarding some guy parked outside of your house for hours on end.
I agree that accessing open networks (like the one at my local coffee joint) shouldn't in and of itself be illegal. But the suspiciousness of his actions should be at least "get-outta-here-or-I'mmina-call-the-cops"-worthy, with the cops actually able to do something about it.
"Another guy invented runless pantyhose. Same deal. "We want to keep selling these crappy products to women over and over and over again!" said the execs."
Tell me where to find this guy. Please. Now. You may not (this *is* slashdot) have expected a female to read this, but she has, and she is really, really, REALLY interested in this product. ^_^
Or the ones that look like actual error messages. Dear god. I have soooo many family members and friends who've panicked at those, especially when they first began appearing. Some of them really do look genuine.
Actually, it was pretty funny one time in my AP psych class. The teacher (who ran a program at our high school for training elementary school teachers in computer use and was married to the comp sci teacher (ie, smart and techno-savvy)) was doing a class demonstration using a psychology website, and one of those popped up. In front of a full classroom, she clicked on it (chorus of "NOOOOOOO"). Easily 30 popups, instantly. 'Twas amusing.
Slashdot Mirror
However, I have run into elementary school teachers who were *dumbfounded* because they organized their classroom with the quiet, polite, well-behaved, completely unassertive little girls who did art projects on one side and the rowdy, loud, roughousing, boys who did math on the other.... and had NO. FUCKING. CLUE. where I was supposed to go. I also encountered a family in high school who had a son who was mathy and a daughter who was not. My calc teacher (female) asked the parents why they thought that was, and their reply was along the lines of "well, isn't that how it's supposed to be?" Ms. Vick (who, despite her additional and more feminine role as school choreographer, is *not* quiet or unassertive) went more than moderately bonkers. And there was much rejoicing.
I ran into some jerkwads occaisionally who did the "you shouldn't be good in math, stop it" routine. My response as a child was generally one of "whaaaaaaa?" Luckily my folks got to me first... it wasn't until I was past my most impressionable years that I fully realized that some people out there genuinely believed that my boobies meant that I couldn't be counted on to add 2 and 2. Also, I tend to be somewhat socially oblivious (still am), and I often didn't pick up on the fact (until and unless pointed out) that my gender was causing some people issues. The combination of these factors meant that I never came close to internalizing that particular gender role.
There are mental differences between males and females. Some of these are nature, and some nurture. One of the ones that *does* appear to be at least largely a native difference is the fact that females tend to notice and respond to subtler social cues than males are, which is unfortunate if the cues discourage them from being as productive as possible. Luckily, this is a generalization and a gradient, and it's when you get the female that is on the thick-as-a-brick end of the spectrum (aka, me) that getting beyond gender norms is more likely.
Math abilities may well be on a similar gradient, much like physical strength: males on average may be better at solving complex algorithms, but just as there are females that can out-bench-press many males, so there are females that can work and thrive in 'masculine' roles. And there are males that can do just as well in 'feminine' roles. So what? Just let everyone do what they personally are suited for. It's not that complicated. Basically, we as a society just need to stop being so silly!
Of course, and speaking of silliness, I would like to point out that, if one is attempting to recruit females, one would be better off going after those that have *not* completely bought into their roles in life. For the love of Taco, the target females are NOT bloody well watching soap operas!
Uncle Owen? Aunt Beru?
I made a comment earlier about a LAN party where some asshat asked who my boyfriend was, as I obviously wasn't there for my own gaming sake. Later on at that same LAN, a bunch of females, the girlfriends of some of the guys playing, showed up. A few of them sat down at the computers for a short while for the apparant purpose of acting cute, stupid, and gigglishly incompetent, laughingly telling their boyfriends how they could never play these games well, and then went over to the kitchen and baked them cookies.
Fuckin'a. Cookies. Holy fuckshit.
Touche. Yeah, that sounds like fun put like that, doesn't it? ^_^
That said, there are differences (be they biological or social) between the average male and the average female gamer. But I think that one of the biggest is that even a reasonably dorky and hard-core gaming female, like myself, tends to be repulsed by or at best "tunes out" the sophomoric sexuality present in many games. I'm used to it now, and I'm not a prude by any means, but it still breaks the spell of, say, Morrowind, to find a random strip club. And Ivy from Soul Calibur is an awesomely powerful high tier character, but no physical person could move let alone fight with that amount of jiggle and wedgie. Back in middle school I actually stopped playing Duke Nukem because I found the strippers annoying as all hell, though I found the rest of the humor quite amusing.
Like I said, I'm used to it now, but trying to get females into buying games is made much more challenging by the alienation that stems from games seeming to be aimed at males only. This is due both to game design and gamer culture. A game that prominantly features boob jigglage and the lan party asshat asking who your boyfriend is since you obviously can't be there to play games yourself tend to be major buzz-kills.
I just think most females would gladly play the same games as males, if there wasn't that initial alienation. Luckily there's an awesome group of folks at my school who I can play COD, Soul Cal, WoW, Starcraft, or Karaoke fucking Revolution with if I so choose (and have time).
And now I return to my tech desk job repairing computers. That's the other thing. If someone actually taught these sorority girls how to actually use (and not ABuse) their !$!@#$!@$!@#%@# machines, things would be a lot better for women-in-gaming and for me in the specific.
I think the scarier thing is that someone took the time to search for a duping. ....unless you actually remembered a Slashdot story from 5 years ago. Impressive, but very scary.
Because, at least at the American college level, they are extremely uncommon.
...go to the CSI website and think it looked a lot like the San Diego Comic-Con website? Between the superheroes and the very very similar color scheme? Or am I just crazy?
You mean how he says at the top "How it Happened - Isaac Asimov"?
But that didn't stop some other sonovabitchwhowilldiediedieslowwwwwwwwly (haven't decided yet between impalement, draw-and-quartering, rabid dingos, or some combination thereof (Why, yes, I work at a tech desk. However did you guess?)) from writing it.
I see the case for there being a "trick of the mind" in normal statistical variation.
But, if I have iTunes on random play of my whooooooole library, and if almost every time during a given session pressing the "next track" button after an unwanted song makes it play, in order, the exact same five or so songs , somethin's a little weird, methinks
While we're on the topic of redefining terms...
;-)
I consider myself a conservative.
By that, I mean I support, as a general rule, a small government, the rights and liberties of the individual, a certain degree of antifederalism, decency and honor in public discourse, the philosophical traditions (scientific, rational, and drawn from the Enlightenment) of the Founders (US-centric), and believe that, within reason, "the government has no place in the boardroom or the bedroom".
This should explain why I marked California's "I Decline to State a Political" Party on my voting registration
Heh. Nice one. :-) Wish I had a setup to do that to some of my buddies...
Heh. The only actual protest that's occurred on my (smallish liberal arts) campus in the two years I've been there was organized by the Conservative Club and was targeted at the school's change in alchohol policy.
Don't turn it into a media circus. Sequester the jury. Let them decide if the evidence, some of which would be presented without revealing the source, holds water. Put him in solitary if convicted.
I agree that he sounds like a scumbag. I agree that, in all likelihood, he's guilty. But he should still. get. a. trial.
And taking a risk on outing an operative in order to preserve someone's right to trial is orders of magnitude away from delibarately releasing a name.
So the guy tells the Navy guy he needs to go and "shove a phone up his roommate's ass" (meant in the joking sense of punishing the other guys for being obnoxious).
The Navy guy called back, and none of them answered the phone. So they now have a rather amusing message on their answering machine that goes something like:
"Uh, sir, the Navy has a don't-ask, don't-tell policy, and you just confessed to partaking in homosexual behavior, so, uh... Have fun, uh, (slightly miffed, with audible quote marks) 'shoving a bone up your roommate's ass'. Goodbye."
Text doesn't do it justice, I fear...
Depends on the service, I think. Air Force pilots (which I had wanted to be as a kid... big fast machines), yeah. But I did army ROTC for a semester (I'm an engineer, and just didn't have time for all the commitments), and they had no problems with me needing an inhaler.
Uhhh... Quakers being decidedly pacifistic and rather egalitarian, you mean the Puritans, yes?
But to those who don't teach, who don't understand what you're going through, who have tried to learn under teachers who have been forced into a mental state unconducive to teaching, the perception is that teachers are part of the problem.
Again, the teachers are definately victims, as well. The system as a whole needs to be reworked, rather than have blame assigned exclusively to any one group. But often it's ignorance and bad experience, not malice, that leads to teacher-bashing.
Hey, I (female) met my boyfriend at a d&d campaign run by a mutual friend. Ya never know. ;-)
But I definately agree with the cockpit-locking. And the pilot-arming.
My mother flew out to visit over the 4th. During her flight, the pilot had to go to the bathroom. Now, when you gotta go you gotta go, but instructing the whole plane to remain seated and blocking the aisle to the open cockpit door with a trash can isn't exactly effective security....
Wasn't there an act of Parliament (/me == American, but they're the ones that compiled this gibberish of a language in the first place) that "he", "his", etc. could, for the sake of preventing linguistic awkwardness, be used for either gender?
Personally, I tend to use either the masculine or the third person plural in the singular (they, their, etc) if I'm uncertain of gender. The former more often in male-dominated areas (Slashdot, my workplace, my engineering department, lan parties, online gaming, y'all know what I mean).
I agree that accessing open networks (like the one at my local coffee joint) shouldn't in and of itself be illegal. But the suspiciousness of his actions should be at least "get-outta-here-or-I'mmina-call-the-cops"-worthy, with the cops actually able to do something about it.
Tell me where to find this guy. Please. Now. You may not (this *is* slashdot) have expected a female to read this, but she has, and she is really, really, REALLY interested in this product. ^_^
Actually, it was pretty funny one time in my AP psych class. The teacher (who ran a program at our high school for training elementary school teachers in computer use and was married to the comp sci teacher (ie, smart and techno-savvy)) was doing a class demonstration using a psychology website, and one of those popped up. In front of a full classroom, she clicked on it (chorus of "NOOOOOOO"). Easily 30 popups, instantly. 'Twas amusing.