Links - 5th February 2018 (2)

The Google Memo: What Does the Research Say About Gender Differences? - "In conclusion, based on the meta-analyses we reviewed and the research on the Greater Male Variability Hypothesis, Damore is correct that there are “population level differences in distributions” of traits that are likely to be relevant for understanding gender gaps at Google and other tech firms. The differences are much larger and more consistent for traits related to interest and enjoyment, rather than ability"

The Most Authoritative Review Paper on Gender Differences - "The authors find, over and over again, that the sex differences we observe often have a biological basis yet are not direct readouts of biological processes; they emerge in the course of development in interaction with social processes, norms, and stereotypes in ways that can vary across cultures and decades... Psychologists often look for sex differences very early in life as clues to the relative contribution of biological and environmental contributions, reasoning that newborns have had fewer social interactions, so the earlier that sex differences are reliably found, the more likely they are assumed to be biological in origin. This assumption is not fully supported by the biological literature because, for many species, sex differences are not evident in infancy and often do not emerge until the age of reproductive maturation. The simple distinction between cognitive sex differences that emerge early in life and those that emerge later does not rule out environmental effects, because the uterine environment affects the development of a fetus"
Newborn girls don't have breasts. Breasts only emerge around age 10, after 10 years of socialisation. Therefore breast development is caused by socialisation and not genetics

Gender Differences in Personality and Interests: When, Where, and Why? - "Results show that gender differences in Big Five personality traits are ‘small’ to ‘moderate,’ with the largest differences occurring for agreeableness and neuroticism (respective ds = 0.40 and 0.34; women higher than men). In contrast, gender differences on the people–things dimension of interests are ‘very large’ (d = 1.18), with women more people-oriented and less thing-oriented than men. Gender differences in personality tend to be larger in gender-egalitarian societies than in gender-inegalitarian societies, a finding that contradicts social role theory but is consistent with evolutionary, attributional, and social comparison theories. In contrast, gender differences in interests appear to be consistent across cultures and over time, a finding that suggests possible biologic influences."

How men's and women's brains are different - "[In the 90s] The neuroscience community had largely considered any observed sex-associated differences in cognition and behavior in humans to be due to the effects of cultural influences. Animal researchers, for their part, seldom even bothered to use female rodents in their experiments, figuring that the cyclical variations in their reproductive hormones would introduce confounding variability into the search for fundamental neurological insights. But over the past 15 years or so, there’s been a sea change as new technologies have generated a growing pile of evidence that there are inherent differences in how men’s and women’s brains are wired and how they work... boys and girls 9 to 17 months old — an age when children show few if any signs of recognizing either their own or other children’s sex — nonetheless show marked differences in their preference for stereotypically male versus stereotypically female toys... Many of these cognitive differences appear quite early in life. “You see sex differences in spatial-visualization ability in 2- and 3-month-old infants”"

The Greater Male Variability Hypothesis – An Addendum to our post on the Google Memo - "at the top end of any distribution of test scores where men have higher variability, we’d expect men to make up more than 50% of the upper end of the tail. Thus, any company drawing from the top 5% is likely to find a pool that contains more males. As one goes further out into the tail (i.e. becomes even more selective) the gender tilt becomes larger. Further compounding the gender tilt: the women in this elite group generally have much better verbal skills than the men in that elite group (see Reilly, 2012). This means that these women may be better employees than men who match them on quantitative skills, but because they have such superior verbal skills they have more choices available to them when selecting a profession... Damore was drawing attention to empirical findings that seem to have been previously unknown or ignored at Google, and which might be helpful to the company as it tries to improve its diversity policies and outcomes"

The Fearless Speech Index: Who is afraid to speak, and why? - " Q1: WHAT topics are students reluctant to speak about?
A1: Race, followed by politics and gender...
Q2: WHY are they afraid? What potential consequences cause them the most concern?
A2: Their fellow students...
Q3: WHO is afraid to speak up?
A3: We found no gender differences in overall reluctance, but found a few differences in reasons for reluctance. On politics, the differences were much larger: moderates and especially conservatives are more reluctant to speak than are liberals... Men were more afraid of their fellow students than were women while discussing gender"

Gay Britain: Manchester club scene turns against heteros - "Bars and clubs have started turning away straight customers in what some have described as wave of "Heterophobia", but which the clubs see as essential to the survival of the gay community... Clubs like the Paradise Factory and Poptastic, and bars like Manto now employ drag queens and gay doormen to decide whether customers trying to gain entry really are gay. "We're not anti-straight," says Andrew O'Dwyer, manager of the Paradise Factory, which turns away 400 people every weekend. "They can come in as long as they come with gay friends. But what happens is if you get too many straight people in you get a change in atmosphere, the vibe changes. "It also means you could spend the whole night chatting someone up only to discover at the end of the night that you're not going to get anywhere."... John Hamilton, manager of Poptastic, says its easy to tell who is gay: "By the way they are dressed, by the way they act, their mannerisms and asking them who they kiss and where they go."... Mr Edwards even believes some straight men come to gay clubs looking for women. "The nicer girls who normally get hassled all night, they come here knowing they're not going to get hassled, so you get a straight lad who uses his head a bit and comes here.""
I thought gay people were scared of a way to detect sexuality and mocked the idea that you can tell if someone is gay by looking at him

Difference between an Ophthalmologist, Optometrist and Optician

George Lucas predicted in 1999 that Jar Jar would be seen in a new way 20 years later - "“George said, ‘This happened with the Ewoks. It happened with Chewbacca. It happened with Lando Calrissian,’” Best recalled. “He was used to this. He knew what was going to happen.”"

Danish Prime Minister Warns of the Emergence of Muslim Parallel Societies, No-Go Zones - "The Danish prime minister said that the problem has become so prevalent in Denmark that he is considering state intervention in some areas. The move is unusual for Denmark which rarely ever sees the government interfere in the operation of schools or set specific rules for housing estates, Jyllands-Posten reports. The move is doubly unusual for Europe, where the normal approach of establishment politicians is to deny the existence of no-go zones altogether. The comments by Løkke Rasmussen seem to suggest a radical break from his fellow Western European leaders in that regard... The DF, along with the Conservative Party, has also been deeply concerned with the threat from the growing number of radical Islamists in neighbouring Sweden. Earlier this year, both parties considered backing legislation to greatly increase security on the Swedish border... In 2016, unemployment figures showed of all families who are totally dependent on state handouts, some 84 per cent are “non-Western origin” migrants. In total, a third of all cash paid out in benefits every month goes to these non-Western migrants in Denmark — a surprisingly high figure as among Denmark’s working-age population non-Western migrants make up just eight per cent of residents. Employment is often considered to be an important step on the path to integration for migrant communities."

Denmark Will Take Out Adverts in Foreign Newspapers Telling Refugees: 'Don't Come Here' - "Remarking that “There is something strange about the fact that a refugee would travel through several countries before ending up in Denmark”, fiery Inger Støjberg now seems to be making her job just as much about discouraging migration to Denmark as it is about integrating people after they have arrived"

New Brunswick city bans trick-or-treating for kids over 16, sets Halloween curfew - "Those caught with a “facial disguise” in public after curfew – like a zombie mask or witch’s veil – or anyone over 16 found roaming the streets for treats can be fined up to $200."

Laura Kipnis’s Endless Trial by Title IX - "The new Title IX policies on sexual misconduct which were then sweeping campuses perpetuated “myths and fantasies about power,” Kipnis wrote, which enlarged the invasive power of institutions while undermining the goal of educating students in critical thinking and resilience... One of Ludlow’s accusers, a graduate student (unnamed in Kipnis’s essay), then joined a fellow graduate student in the philosophy department in filing Title IX complaints against Kipnis, under Northwestern’s sexual-misconduct policy. Through her essay and a subsequent tweet about the essay, Kipnis was alleged to have violated the part of the sexual-misconduct policy prohibiting “retaliation”; additionally, she was alleged to have created a “hostile environment” and a “chilling effect” on complaints. Northwestern launched a formal Title IX investigation of Kipnis. Most people under Title IX investigation don’t speak publicly about it, even to defend themselves. But Kipnis responded by publishing a follow-up essay in the Chronicle, called “My Title IX Inquisition,” decrying the investigation as a misuse of Title IX that allowed “intellectual disagreement to be redefined as retaliation.”... A professor whom Kipnis brought to her interview as her “support person” also had a Title IX retaliation complaint filed against him, after he spoke to the faculty senate about his concerns that the Kipnis investigation threatened academic freedom... Title IX can be deployed to make life difficult for a person one despises, for whatever reasons—good or bad. Two professors I spoke to said that they have experienced this phenomenon firsthand... Kipnis’s rebuke of common slippages and conflations, whereby “gropers become rapists and accusers become Survivors,” anticipated a situation in which expression of her opinions about a sexual-harassment allegation could be sincerely perceived as an act of sexual harassment... risk is now built into the professional life of those of us in universities who engage on subjects related to gender and sexuality. Like Kipnis, I routinely hear from teachers who say they are refraining from teaching and writing on such topics for fear of attracting Title IX complaints, which bring possibilities of termination, demotion, pay cuts, and tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, especially for the swelling ranks of teachers who, unlike Kipnis and me, do not have tenure. Yet debate on these topics is crucial to the pursuit of sex equality, as much as participants may disagree on what that means"

Kaepernick's Protest is an Incomplete - "When the Black Lives Matter platform calls for an end to private schools and the wholesale defunding of police, it became clear that BLM proponents see the world through the lens of “intersectionality”: an ideology whose proponents believe in a vast “matrix of oppression,” a kind of conspiracy theory that defines the world as an ongoing battle between black and white, rich and poor, men and women, and other opposing forces, always in conflict with each other. This has resulted in a superficial depiction of the challenges faced in inner city communities, and a media obsession and collusion with those who give expression to such reductive ways of thinking. So when a football player like Kaepernick refuses to stand during the National Anthem and says “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color,” what started out as a protest movement against law enforcement using excessive force upon African-Americans has turned into a wholesale denunciation of America. Catch-all buzzwords like “oppression” are used to command media attention but offer no real-world solutions to complex problems... Those who tow the BLM line have a tendency to reduce complex issues to slogans and rhetorical hype, just as the BLM platform itself has done. Ostensibly written to address pressing issues in the United States, its authors took the liberty to inject disparaging planks that demonize the state of Israel by accusing it of “genocide” — another term that, in addition to insulting Jews and other victims of real genocide, conflates legitimate concerns over law enforcement in America with the policies of a foreign country thousands of miles away – which has nothing to do with the matter of Black lives in America... There is little explanation for BLM’s foray into geopolitics, and this unholy alliance can only be attributed to ignorance and a ride on the coattails of the current wave of acceptable anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment that’s running rampant throughout academic, intellectual and activist circles"

Thousands rally across Philippines to protest against President Rodrigo Duterte - "Ms Robredo said Filipinos born after the Marcos era should not be complacent and should recognise signs of “rising tyranny”. “If we do not remember the past, we are condemned to repeat it,” she said. “Sadly those who are deceived do not even know that they are walking a doomed path.” The rallies were organised to mark the 45th anniversary of the declaration of martial law by Marcos in 1972."

China's projects in Vietnam earn reputation for poor quality, delays - "Surveys suggest most projects suffer from quality concerns, delays, and cost overruns... Common to all the projects were low bids and cheaper cost of investment arrangements. According to Pham Chi Lan, a Vietnamese economic analyst, this will turn out to be very expensive in the long run -- costs will continue escalating for low quality results. Mistakes, shoddy work, obsolete machinery, and accidents have become commonplace, causing a general loss of confidence in China-backed projects"

Professors told to report students who make campus ‘less inclusive’ to Behavior Assessment Team - "the dean’s office of Utah Valley University, a public institution located in the north-central part of Utah, distributed a guidance letter to all faculty encouraging them to report to the school’s Behavior Assessment Team any students who use “inappropriate language,” are “argumentative,” or who speak “loudly.”... “Yes, even in a deep-red state at a university in one of the most conservative counties in America, faculty are afraid to speak their minds publicly if their opinions aren’t 100 percent politically correct”"

Islamic Rules in Danish Schools - "Some Muslim schools in Denmark appear to be employing anti-Semitic teachers, enforcing gender inequality, employing violence against students, offering poor education in general, and teaching jihad... Two former teachers at the Nord-Vest school, Henriette Baden Hesselmann and Gitte Luttinen Ørnkow, described how the children at the school spoke of Danes in terms of "them and us". In a school poetry contest in 2008, several of the children composed poems that detailed their wish to beat up and break the legs and hands of the "Danish pigs". The former teachers described a school culture of intimidation and violence, with the head of the school board yelling at the students in Arabic and beating them. The former teachers added that all their students admitted that they were also beaten at home. The Jew-hatred was unmistakable, as the geography teacher discovered when he almost had to give up teaching a lesson about Israel due to the students' hostility. Another teacher was told not to draw stars in the children's books as a way of showing the children that they had done well, since the star was reminiscent of the Star of David. The girls were not allowed to participate in swimming lessons, sports, or music lessons."

Chinese maze: Village makes giant tech code from trees - "Even beggars have been pictured displaying the codes to encourage donations."

Number of stay-at-home dads falls as novelty of being a 'new man' wears off - "The latest ONS data shows that there are currently 232,000 men opting out of the workplace - the lowest number since 2014, and a sharp drop against a pattern which has been steadily increasing since 1993"

Homelessness is a gendered issue, and it mostly impacts men - "27 different local authorities carried out surveys involving 3,355 homeless people, 71 per cent of whom were men. Not surprisingly, the results revealed that the vast majority of homeless people experiencing health problems in the UK are male. So why did the charity responsible only choose to publicise the problems faced by homeless women?... male gender inequality is not just a symptom of homelessness but also a cause. If the majority of homeless people were women the problem would be solved a lot quicker. Yet because we are collectively more tolerant of the harm that happens to men and boys (than women and girls), we continue to tolerate male homelessness. Homeless charities instinctively know that the public, press and politicians are more sensitive to needs of vulnerable women, which is why they issue press releases that highlight the problems that homeless women face, while ignoring the problems that homeless men face"
Maybe those pointing out the sexism will be accused of whataboutism - while feminist whataboutism is never questioned

Nine out of ten victims of police-related deaths are male. Who cares? - "Generally, there are two reasons the media refer to “people” when telling us stories:
Because the “people” they are referring to are a fairly even mix of men and women
Because the majority of the “people” they are talking about are men...
There’s an exception to this rule. If the “people” in question have perpetrated some heinous crime, then they are no longer “people”, they are male actors in a gendered story, and the fact they are “men” is pushed to the fore...
It’s why, when men and boys account for 8 out 10 violent deaths worldwide, we have global campaigns to end violence against women and girls, but no campaigns to end violence against men and boys. It’s why, when around 95% of the UK prison population is male, we have gendered initiatives to reduce the impact of prison on women, but no gendered initiatives to reduce the impact of prison on men."