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Comment Re:It's coming. Watch for it.. (Score 0) 163

Here's a good example of an overly aggressive driver

Huh? Did we watch the same video? Passing a bicyclist who refuses to yield the road to a faster vehicle isn't "overly aggressive", and there is no indication in that video that the motorist passed the cyclist dangerously. In fact, the video clearly shows the cyclist chasing down the motorist and initiating a confrontation.

Now, the motorist's behavior after he pulled over is despicable...but there was not a problem one with his passing the cyclist.

IMO, a cyclist who doesn't yield the road to faster vehicles when the opportunity presents it isn't doing himself or his community any favors.

Comment Re:Subject (Score 1) 212

Dualism is false, and to say that men and women have different behavior is to say that there are such physical differences.

So you acknowledge the possibility that gender differences in brain structure/biochemistry could cause differences in the ability of the genders to perform certain tasks. Have I got that right?

If culture affects behavior, then culture necessarily affects brain structure and neurochemistry.

That's a pretty extraordinary claim. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof... got anything? Can you cite any peer reviewed study that supports your assertion, or should we just take your word for it?

What was under discussion previously in this thread was that such differences are inherent, that is, determined by the genetic differences between men and women.

I don't think so. You keep saying that, but again, my reading of the discussion so far is you are arguing that culture alone explains observed gender strengths/weaknesses. If I'm not mistaken, you now seem to have reversed your position on the matter.

I did read the links you posted. While they are quite interesting, none of them provide any evidence that what they discover is inherent to men and women.

I guess it's a good thing that no one here has claimed a causal link between gender specific brain differences and gender specific skill differences. Why do you keep saying someones has?

...the skeptical position that even more complex traits such as skill-levels and proclivities are likely cultural as well.

You don't know much about the scientific method. An unbiased researcher would not dismiss a possible influence on an experiment.

The second is merely absurd in the face of the ongoing portrayal of STEM in our culture's media, let alone what one would see in carefully observations of social interaction between STEM workers (in academia or industry).

Then you should have no trouble citing an authoritative study that refutes that poster's claim.

Cheers!

Comment Re:nothing new under the sun (Score 1) 446

From your own link, many people who file jointly pay less taxes than filing alone. In certain odd circumstances you can end up paying more if you file jointly, but you have the option of filing separately anyway.

You know what? After looking into the matter more extensively, the balance of the sources I found indicates you're right! Thanks!

So worst case scenario, you pay the same as single people. Any other scenario, you pay less.

Nope, not that part. There are plenty of married couples filing jointly that pay more taxes than non-married couples filing singly.

Now, I haven't yet come across a percentage of one option vs the other, but there does seem to be a marriage penalty for at least some married couples. Whether or not it constitutes a majority, I can't say. Got any info pertinent to the question?

Cheers!

Comment Re:Subject (Score 1) 212

You didn't get it. When you take studies about differences in brain structure and claim it supports a the notion that a specific apparent behavioral different is inherently biological, that is vague handwaving.

Uh huh. I'm pretty sure it's you that doesn't get it. I made no such claims. What I did do is provide you with a list of links that conclusively show biological differences in the brains of men and women, which were trivially easy to find, and which disprove your position that there's no reliable evidence to the contrary.

Further, behavioral studies which crucially fail to control for culture don't actually say anything other than how people behave, as opposed to why.

Did you actually read any of the papers in my list of citations? If you did, you would have noticed that the studies are grounded in observed brain structure/biology, not behavior. Controlling for culture in these studies would be based on the assumption that culture somehow has a measurable effect on brain structure and biochemistry, and that different cultures would have different brain structures. Is that your position?

In any event, I would point out that the last two papers I linked to do in fact seem to claim a causal relationship between male/female brain differences and observed behavior. The paper's abstract hosted on the Oxford Journal site reads in part:

"The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine whether induced stress resulted in gender-specific patterns of brain activation during a decision task involving monetary reward....Gender differences in behavior were present in stressed participants but not controls, such that stress led to greater reward collection and faster decision speed in males but less reward collection and slower decision speed in females."

I'm not a neurologist, and I take no position on the conclusions of that study. But it sure looks to me like the paper's researchers are claiming a direct relationship between differences in male/female brains and gender differences in the ability to perform a decision making task under stress. Does this study meet your standard of reliable information? If not, why?

The interesting thing here, demonstrated in the OP's responses, is that the underlying motivation is the belief that women don't face obstacles in STEM.

Which OP is that? The only thing I see under discussion here is the question of 1) whether or not there are biological differences in the brains of men vs women, and 2) whether or not biology might play a role in women being underrepresented in some professions and overrepresented in others.

Comment Re:Subject (Score 1) 212

In any event, there is plenty of evidence of biological differences in the brains of men and women...

Vaague handwaving over common-sense notions isn't systematic evidence.

It took me about 3 minutes to find the following studies showing that brain structure/chemistry is indeed different for men and women:

http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news...
http://www.sciencedirect.com/s...
http://nro.sagepub.com/content...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm...
http://www.sciencedirect.com/s...
http://www.brain-mind-institut...
http://scan.oxfordjournals.org...

The last two of the studies listed above don't just show gender specific biological differences in the brain, they link the differences to skills/behavior.

Honestly, a trained chimp could find this stuff. Why is it you can't?

Comment Re:All this means is that you can catch them (Score 1) 339

I think you've confused "data" with the plural of anecdote.

According to the very conservative numbers from the NCVS (national crime victimization survey) nearly 300,000 rapes and/or sexual assaults occur each year.

Interesting. Does the NCVS gather any stats on the crime of false accusation of rape? No? Can you point me to any reputable organization that does?

Single or even double-digit number of false rape reports in the newspapers is statistical noise.

Reported rapes are themselves a dark figure; false rape accusations are an even darker figure. In practical terms, it may be impossible to get to the actual number of false accusations.

Nonetheless, the FBI's numbers say 1 in 12 reported rapes are unfounded. The FBI also notes that for the more general class of "false accusations of adult crime", women perpetrate the majority of them.

Comment Re:Phillips not the first with harebrained schemes (Score 1) 279

Do you really think those people are going to argue with management that they shouldn't have a job developing this concept?

The concept is developed, and the products have already been deployed in the marketplace. This technology is successful. Period. But feel free to continue to come up with more far-fetched scenarios about how entrepreneurs at mind-boggling successful corporations are a bunch of no-nothing rubes.

Comment Re:That is not necessarily true (Score 1) 278

Really... and all the election polls were accurate? http://www.yourememberthat.com...

Nobody said ALL the election polls were accurate. YOU are the one who said:

"...look election polls prior to the election. They very rarely match up with the actual election. Why is that?"

How many times are you going to point to a SINGLE instance where the polls were wrong? Do you honestly think anyone reading this exchange is is as retarded as you are? The fact is, polls very rarely get elections results wrong. Exactly the opposite of your unbelievably ignorant claim.

Election polls are frequently wrong.

What the fuck does "frequently" mean? Your position is that polls "very rarely match up with the actual election." FACTS disagree with you.

The republicans in 2012 thought they were going to win as I remember.

What the Republicans thought in 2012 has shit to do with the historic accuracy of polls. That Gallup got it wrong in the 2012 presidential election doesn't change the fact that Gallup got it right 85% of the time.

There is so much evidence that you're choking on stupidity: http://www.dailykos.com/story/...

I thought you eschewed the validity of citations. Are you sure you want to bring them back into the argument? Why don't you show me some historical data confirming polls "very rarely match up with the actual election."

Your argument would require that the polls all agree with each other... but they don't.

Uh, yeah, more often than not they do. Your argument is that polls are rarely accurate. I have provided DATA nullifying your claim. The best you can do is shit out cherry-picked data.

Continue to make a fool out of yourself. I'd say it's giving me a hard-on, but homo-eroticism is your specialty.

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