Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

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Thursday, January 23. 2014

Thursday morning links

The Decline of the American Book Lover


Is "Diversity" In Science Necessary? Legal?


Top 10 reasons sex is good for you


Poster in Kansas Middle School Lists Sex Acts


At least they didn't post the Ten Commandments.


Why Don't More Women Want to Work With Other Women?


Understanding Peer Review:



 From: Phil Jones <p.jones@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>
To: “Michael E. Mann” <mann@xxxxxxxxx.xxx>
Subject: HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Date: Thu Jul 8 16:30:16 2004


I can’t see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow – even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is !


Cheers
Phil



Prager U: Why Rent Control Hurts Renters



Why Is The Press Fighting To Protect Wendy Davis?


What if she were a Conservative?  Who Is ‘Boo’ Burnham?


Are Leftists really For the ‘People’?


Nordic Countries Increasingly Giving Welfare State the Cold Shoulder


Do we face a disastrous century due to global cooling?


LA Times: We Only Have 15 Years Left Before Climate Doom


Yikes!


McArdle: Resolved: Obamacare Is Now Beyond Rescue


"The Supreme Court Case That Could Clobber Public-Sector Unions."


Article describes the racket


Will:  Government should not force people into unions


Another Obama Record… One in Five US Households Now on Food Stamps


Obama: Abortion means everyone gets to “fulfill their dreams”


Krauthammer: Impotent Networks Resent They ‘No Longer Control the Agenda’ - “When Brokaw, Jennings, and Rather were in the chair... they had all the power.”


Finally, GOP Begins to Focus on School Choice


France Adopts Reaganomics (Again)






Is "Diversity" In Science Necessary? Legal?
Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:21 | Comments (16) | Trackbacks (0)

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I have been saying for decades the affirmative action and anti-discrimination laws should apply to STEM fields. They deserve. The oppressed deserve it. It’s win-win.

Practically this means no white males should be allowed to graduate with STEM degrees for 25 years.
#1 ErisGuy on 2014-01-23 06:43 (Reply)
Women earned a majority of 2012 doctoral degrees in 33 STEM fields, can we stop calling it a ‘national crisis’?


QUOTE:
Based on doctoral degrees granted in 2012, there is evidence that women are actively pursuing graduate work in many STEM fields of their choice, and outnumber male doctoral recipients in 33 different STEM fields, and are close to parity with men in another 12 doctoral fields.


That kind of undercuts the narrative. But men do still dominate in the rougher fields.


As for racial/national origin diversity. Well, the problem I hear about is that the math is hard because the instructor speaks heavily accented English.

If the concern is specifically Black and Hispanic representation, then the place to look is whether "graduates" from inner city school systems can pass an independent, objective math assessment. If not, then pressure should be applied to those schools.

Passing STEM is not like playing football with an elementary reading level. No amount of university "help" will make an individual with poor math into an engineer. Unless, of course, that "help" is demanding remedial math.
#1.1 JKB on 2014-01-23 09:01 (Reply)
I took a closer look at that list.

“Science Education” is listed as a STEM field. No, it isn’t. The E in STEM is for Engineering, not Education.

For some reason, Anthropology is also on the list. Not STEM. Ditto for Food Technology. I’m not even sure what “Educational Statistics” is. Probably not STEM.

The list omits all other STEM fields which include almost all physics, chemistry, math, and engineering, so no comparison can be made as to the proportional quantity of fields in which women are the majority of doctoral candidates.
#1.1.1 ErisGuy on 2014-01-23 15:43 (Reply)
I'm with you. That list has been assembled to deceive.

There's no physics: high-energy, condensed matter. No astronomy. No math. There's all these wierd PhD specializations, and then there's Chemistry: Analytical and Other. There's no engineering. No computer science and robotics, you know, Technology.

It's heavily front-loaded with topics that traditionally have been of interest to women: life sciences. And topics that have traditionally been of interest to men: not on the list.

You can never trust a single reference like this put out by a science organization. The order of the day is, use multiple references from competing organizations, and apply the skeptical stinky eye to all of them. Even Peer Reviewed articles are not to be trusted.
#1.1.1.1 John A. Fleming on 2014-01-23 18:46 (Reply)
This whole argument is based on the fantasy that there should be some correct statistical makeup of certain populations. Where has that happened? The fact that certain sub-populations are "under-represented" or "over-represented" in a macro-populations is not necessarily a bad thing or a product of any sort of discrimination.

That isn't to say that the fact that (taking blacks as an example) the fact that there are few blacks in STEM fields, is a good or desirable thing. The tragedy of the state of black education as well as black cultural pressures plays a large part in that. Rather than trying to "fix" this situation by imposing quotas, easing standards, etc. - in other words, impinging on the end result, the effort should be directed at the beginning - in their formative years in grade and high school - not by forcing some outcome but by providing quality, stimulating education. There may not be any more blacks that go into STEM fields, but they would be better educated - which is the worst case scenario (i.e. the "fix" did not work).
#1.2 mudbug on 2014-01-23 09:57 (Reply)
The time and effort the NAACP, the many race pimps and black leaders spend pushing quota's and extorting money and goodies would be better spent helping the people that they claim to be interested in. Spend their time and effort on preserving the black families, preventing birth outside of marriage and teaching parents how to work with their schools in positive ways that help the sudents (i.e. make them do homework, attend classes, stay out of trouble, reinforce a positive attitude towards school, etc.). Instead the so-called black leaders have instilled a belief in the nations black citizens that they are entitled to everything and if it is denied them that it must be because of racism. I think the "free stuff" is about to run out and if the poor and "downtrodden" don't learn how to fend for themselves their problems will get much worse. An education, not simply a diploma, should be the first priority.
#1.2.1 GoneWithTheWind on 2014-01-23 22:02 (Reply)
Agreed! Besides "black leaders", the most damaging thing to happen to the "black community" have been "compassionate" whites.
#1.2.1.1 mudbug on 2014-01-23 23:23 (Reply)
The sad thing about the "sex acts" poster is the ignorance revealed.

"Hugging" is a revelation of sexual feelings? True, but I hugged my grandma and I'm positive neither of us had sexual feelings at the time.

And, what's the deal with "talking" being listed twice?

Note, they don't list 'saying "I love you"' only "I like you".

And who decided that "dancing" was an expression of sexual feelings. Most times, a dance if just a dance. Even twerking is often times just showing your a--.
#2 JKB on 2014-01-23 09:14 (Reply)
Just the never learn from the past radical left repeating the past. They have to wait until no one remembers their failures and are willing to try again.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/the-sexual-revolution-and-children-how-the-left-took-things-too-far-a-702679.html
#2.1 Dale on 2014-01-23 11:27 (Reply)
What I learned in my pre-AIDS-awareness age 11 school sex-ed: If you want people to know that you are mature, you should be engaging in genital sex. Ergo, if you are not engaging in genital sex, you are immature.
I'm sure that was not the intended message, but that is what I and my peers heard.
#2.1.1 Douglas2 on 2014-01-23 12:37 (Reply)
So Scandanavian countries and France are all cutting back on socialism, b/c they couldn't manage after the go-go 90s?

Meanwhile the US is embracing these failed policies?
#3 DrTorch on 2014-01-23 09:16 (Reply)
It's all good Torch! We're smarter than they are and we'll do socialism right this time.
#3.1 mudbug on 2014-01-23 10:14 (Reply)
As much smaller and far more homogeneous culture they were always much better positioned to manage higher levels of socialism than the US ever was or will be. Multi-culti, special interest claims is a toxic mix for socialism.
#3.2 phil g on 2014-01-23 11:10 (Reply)
Obama: Abortion means everyone gets to “fulfill their dreams”


Except of course for those who were aborted.

That was a giant softball floating over the plate. Obama and his crew are too dense or idiologically blinded to even see the absurd and disgusting irony in this statement.

I dislike the man more every day.
#4 phil g on 2014-01-23 11:14 (Reply)
Unions are nothing more then special interest groups who have bought politicians who then give the unions favorable (unconstitutional) laws and the unions use these laws to extort money and benefits from employers. What strikes me as odd about our system of law is that judges will agree that something is unconstitutional but then say we cannot change it because it has existed for years and years so we grandfather it in. When the politicians become dishonest and accept money from unions in exchange for favorable legislation for the unions the court is the last resort to correct this grossly unconstitutional act. Sadly the courts have a long history of failing to uphold the constitution too.
#5 GoneWithTheWind on 2014-01-23 12:02 (Reply)
Decline of book readers: I'm mostly reading magazines and bloggers, but I bought 3 books last week, and 2 in December, and quite a stack of books in my night stand. My son gave me a couple this year, and my bro a big book on one of my western heroes. YMMV.

Diversity in science necessary? Of course, not. Unless you are a "diversity" nut. Blacks are hobbled by bad schools in big cities, and cultural problems (of which we "must" not speak).

Top Ten Reasons: Link Bait! Link BAIT!

Working with women: Women know women are more emotional--and they're been to middle and high school with terrible cliques of same.

Press & Wendy: She's a Dem, they're Dems, and it's the Party Line.

Leftists ARE for "the people" (as they imagine them). Persons, they can't stand, because they don't fit the lefties' imagination.

15 Years to Climate Doom: Wasn't it about 15 years ago Ted Danson told us the oceans would die, if we didn't do everything we could RIGHT THEN, in 10 years?

Krauthammer: Yeah, and the NYT and WaPo, too.
#6 Sam L. on 2014-01-23 12:34 (Reply)

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