Society's ChildS


Brain

Sexual neuroscience PhD: Google memo engineer is right, sex differences are real

Debra Soh
The Globe and Mail
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 18:45 UTC
debra soh
Debra W. Soh is a Provost Dissertation Scholar and PhD. candidate in psychology, specializing in the neuroscience of sex, at York University.
By now, most of us have heard about Google's so-called "anti-diversity" manifesto and how James Damore, the engineer who wrote it, has been fired from his job.

Titled Google's Ideological Echo Chamber, Mr. Damore called out the current PC culture, saying the gender gap in Google's diversity was not due to discrimination, but inherent differences in what men and women find interesting. Danielle Brown, Google's newly appointed vice-president for diversity, integrity and governance, accused the memo of advancing "incorrect assumptions about gender," and Mr. Damore confirmed last night he was fired for "perpetuating gender stereotypes."

Despite how it's been portrayed, the memo was fair and factually accurate. Scientific studies have confirmed sex differences in the brain that lead to differences in our interests and behaviour.

As mentioned in the memo, gendered interests are predicted by exposure to prenatal testosterone - higher levels are associated with a preference for mechanically interesting things and occupations in adulthood. Lower levels are associated with a preference for people-oriented activities and occupations. This is why STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields tend to be dominated by men.

Comment: More on the Google memo controversy:

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Attention

Executions have dramatically increased since change in Saudi leadership


Sputnik
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 18:34 UTC
human rights watch
© AFP 2017/ JOHN MACDOUGALL
A prominent human rights organization expressed its concerns Thursday over the dramatic increase in the number of executions in Saudi Arabia after changes were made to the country's leadership two months ago.

In late June, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud replaced then-Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef with his 31-year-old son Mohammad Bin Salman.

"Saudi Arabia's public relations firms and management consultants have recently sold a reform narrative, but executions have only increased since Saudi Arabia's leadership change, and many more could be on the way. Executions are never the answer to stopping crime, especially when they result from a flawed justice system that ignores torture allegations," Human Rights Watch Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whitson said in a statement.

Whitson also called on Riyadh to halt executions as well as "sham trials" that use confessions obtained through illegal methods.

Comment: Coerced confessions, torture, execution of political dissidents. Sounds like a perfect match for a U.S./Canada/UK ally!

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Attention

17yo NY mother charged with attempted murder after infant baby found abandoned in plastic bag


RT
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 18:13 UTC
mother attempted murder
© Elmira Police Department / Facebook
An 8-month-old baby was found alive in a plastic bag outside a home in upstate New York after being abandoned by her 17-year-old mother for three days.

Officers from the Elmira Police Department (EPD) responded to a call Tuesday about an infant child that was found alive in a plastic bag behind a home in upstate New York, according to a press release posted on the department's Facebook page.

Police said that the child was found by neighbors around 1:00pm after they heard a suspicious noise they thought might be an animal. When they went to investigate, they were amazed to find an infant's feet sticking out of a garbage bag.

"Her legs were just dangling in the bag, her head was in the bag, her whole head was covered all the way down," Kayla Seals, one of the neighbors who rescued the baby girl, told WENY.
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Propaganda

New York Times caught replacing documents to fix botched article about climate change

Michael Bastach
The Daily Caller
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 14:31 UTC
NY Times Bldg
The New York Times has quietly updated its Tuesday front page article on a "sweeping" global warming report some scientists fear "would be suppressed" by the Trump administration.

The NYT reported they had obtained an unreleased draft copy of the National Climate Assessment (NCA), which is set for release in 2018. The paper claimed the NDA draft had "not yet been made public" and "concludes that Americans are feeling the effects of climate change right now."

However, The NYT published a "third order draft" of the NCA that's been available online since January. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published the draft online in March.

The paper did not issue a formal correction by the time this article was published, and did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation's inquiry into whether or not a correction would be issued.
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Cardboard Box

Nearly 250K people are homeless in Britain; charity forecasts significant increases in coming years


RT
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 11:46 UTC
homeless UK
© Stefan Wermuth / ReutersThe report says that at any one point last year, an estimated 236,000 people were experiencing a form of homelessness in Britain, including 50,000 children.
Nearly a quarter of a million people are experiencing acute forms of homelessness across Britain, with rough sleeping set to rise by 76 percent by 2026 unless the government takes serious long-term action, the homelessness charity Crisis has warns.

About 9,100 people were sleeping rough in 2016 at any one time, while 68,300 were sofa surfing, 19,300 were living in unsuitable temporary accommodation, and 37,200 were living in hostels, the research by Heriot-Watt University for the charity says.

A further 26,000 were living in other circumstances, with 8,900 sleeping in tents, cars or on public transport, more than 12,000 living in squats, and 5,000 in women's refuges or night shelters.

Comment: Strong and stable? Number of homeless families in UK has almost doubled since Tories took power in 2010

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Eye 1

The infamous internal Google Memo that brings forward an overdue conversation about sex differences and ideological bias

Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 12:08 UTC
Tolerance
Today's piece was originally supposed to be the second and last part of a short series on the Google memo, but in light of the author's rapid termination, I've decided to add at least one other installment on the topic. As such, my analysis on how Spiral Dynamics fits into the whole drama will have to wait till another day.

As everyone knows by now, Google went ahead and fired James Damore, the author of the now infamous memo on Google's Ideological Echo Chamber. In yesterday's piece I remarked about how shocked I was by the extraordinarily charged and hyperbolic language being used by so many of those who disagreed with what Mr. Damore wrote. Indeed, the language and mischaracterizations of the memo itself were so completely unhinged in many instances, it's hard for me to believe that many of these people even read it in the first place.

First off, while I happen to agree with a lot of what he wrote, that's besides the point. If you read the memo it's obvious that the author went out of his way to avoid triggering people who are easily triggered. Whether or not you agree with the conclusions, it was written in a respectful and measured way. He goes out of his way to clarify what he's saying so as not to be misunderstood. Here are just a couple examples of what I mean:

Comment: See: Jordan Petersen interviews James Damore, author of "controversial" Google diversity

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Map

Syrian militias seek contact with Russia to set up safe zone in Idlib


Sputnik
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 16:29 UTC
damaged Idlib, Syria
© REUTERS/ Ammar Abdullah
Armed groups in northern Syria are trying to get in touch with Russia to organize a meeting to outline the borders of the fourth Syria de-escalation zone, a commander of the Free Syrian Army in southern Aleppo province told Sputnik.

"We are trying to get in touch with the Russian side via a mediator to reach an agreement on the de-escalation zone in Idlib and the southern suburb of Aleppo. Groups gave us authorization to speak on their behalf," the commander said.

The news comes amid a report the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel, Russia and the US had held several rounds of secret talks to discuss the ceasefire in southern Syria and the setup of de-escalation zones prior to the establishment of the zones.
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Info

Muslim women more pessimistic about life in America than Muslim men, experience more discriminatory treatment

Claire Gecewicz
Pew Research Center
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 00:00 UTC
Muslim woman USA
© Marcell Rafli/EyeEm via Getty Images
While many Muslims express wariness and anxiety about aspects of their lives in the United States, Muslim women tend to be more pessimistic about their place in U.S. society than Muslim men.

According to a new Pew Research Center survey, more Muslim women than men say it has become more difficult to be Muslim in the U.S. in recent years (57% vs. 43%).

And Muslim women are more divided on their acceptance by society at large than are men. Half (52%) of Muslim women say they have a lot in common with most Americans and 44% view the American people as friendly toward Muslim Americans, compared with two-thirds of Muslim men who say each of these things.
Muslim women poll
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Attention

Google's firing terrifies social conservatives - SJWs' true agenda seen in action

Erick Erickson
Washington Post
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 15:38 UTC
James Damore google memo
James Damore, author of the Google Memo
Is the tech industry still a boys' club? A Google software engineer penned a controversial memo, suggesting that the gender pay gap stemmed from "biological causes" between men and women. He was subsequently fired.

"I strongly believe in gender and racial diversity, and I think we should strive for more," the Google employee wrote. "Women on average show a higher interest in people and men in things. ... Women on average are more cooperative. ... Women on average look for more work-life balance while men have a higher drive for status on average," he continued.

"The male gender role is currently inflexible. Feminism has made great progress in freeing women from the female gender role, but men are still very much tied to the male gender role. If we, as a society, allow men to be more 'feminine,' then the gender gap will shrink, although probably because men will leave tech and leadership for traditionally feminine roles," he wrote. These are all quotes from James Damore, the Harvard-educated employee who worked as a Google engineer until being fired for daring to suggest Google needs more diversity but should rethink how to foster that diversity.

According to the tech site Gizmodo, Damore wrote an "anti-diversity screed." Re/Code referred to it as "sexist." The tech site Mashable assailed anyone who defended Damore as being part of the "alt-right." The problem, chiefly, is that many critics claimed Damore said things he did not and painted the things he did say in the worst possible light.

Comment:

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People

N. Koreans denounce Trump's 'fire and fury' threat in massive rally


RT
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 15:57 UTC
A general view shows a Pyongyang city mass rally held at Kim Il Sung Square on August 9, 2017
© ReutersA general view shows a Pyongyang city mass rally held at Kim Il Sung Square on August 9, 2017.
Tens of Thousands of North Koreans rallied on Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, after the UN Security Council passed a new round of sanctions and US President Donald Trump threatened the country with "fire and fury" over its missile tests.

Footage from the Wednesday rally showed North Koreans lined up in an organized fashion behind military troops, clapping to remarks made by government leaders.

Some held propaganda placards as they marched through the square, chanting as they pumped their fists in the air.

Thousands of North Korean workers, dressed in white shirts, also angrily marched through the square while carrying the country's flag.
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