In case anyone cares, Enceladus was one of the children of Uranus and Gaia, one of a race of giants. Depending on which version you prefer, he was either killed by Athena or by Silenus, the drunken butt-buddy of Dionysus and buried on the isle of Sicily. I prefer the Athena story, because Athena was hot.

Esoteric circles believe that the giants that appear in almost every single culture's mythology were actually the first draft of the Annunaki, who bred them here on Earth as miners after they came here from Nubaru (or "Planet X"), until one of the Shining Ones decided to breed with a primate female, creating homo sapiens. And then all hell broke loose.

I'm pretty sure it's all BS, but I like a good story, and really, who knows? Newspapers from the 1800s and early 1900s were full of stories of giant skeletons being found in burial mounds before the US government, acting completely unlike themselves, decided to make it a federal crime to dig at the megalithic burial mounds, citing "respect for Native American culture" (which, considering history, really doesn't sound like the US government. Newspaper reports from that time about these skeletons and mummies being found definitely exist, but like I said, it's probably all BS. It still makes for a good tale, though.

Entheogenic madman Graham Hancock presents the saga here, in case you want a spooky bedtime story. http://www.grahamhancock.com/f...

Does Australia even allow video games anymore?

The top-selling game this week in Australia is GTA V. Just because you can't buy it in K-Mart doesn't mean it's not available.

Who even buys games at K-Mart?

2014 was a very bad year for the gaming industry, the gaming community and gaming culture. It might have something to do with the fact that a vocal portion of the gaming community decided they would rather stalk people and shitpost than actually play games. It does not surprise that companies building AAA titles would suffer. Plus, capital is fleeing from the gaming industry faster than from Angola diamond mines. It's easier for them to just avoid the whole cesspool and put their money in something less controversial, like human trafficking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Why are you talking about Diebold?

I'm not "talking about Diebold". I'm talking about how voting machines get certified. I'm talking about where the money comes from. I'm talking about why there is such an effort to change election technology when there is no evidence the old technology is broken.

but that has shit all to do with this article.

The history of how it was decided that elections in the United States had to be automated has everything to do with this article.

What the fuck are you U.S.A.sians doing?

Rigging elections keeps us free. Aren't you paying attention?

How the hell did something like this get certified in the first place?

How, indeed.

This is not the first time Diebold’s been accused of bribery. In 2005, the Free Press exposed that Matt Damschroder, Republican chair of the Franklin County of Elections in 2004, reported that a key Diebold operative told Damschroder he made a $50,000 contribution to then-Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell's “political interests” while Blackwell was evaluating Diebold's bids for state purchasing contracts. Damschroder admitted to personally accepting a $10,000 check from former Diebold contractor Pasquale “Patsy” Gallina made out to the Franklin County Republican Party. That contribution was made while Damschroder was involved in evaluating Diebold bids for county contracts. Damschroder was suspended for a month without pay for the incident. Despite the scandal, he was later appointed as Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted's Director of Elections.

Diebold was at the center of Ohio’s 2004 election debacle, much of this captured in an article by Free Press Senior Editor Harvey Wasserman and this author, entitled, “Diebold’s Political Machine.” Walden "Wally" O'Dell, chairman of the board and chief executive of Diebold, was a long-time funder of Republican candidates. In September 2003, he held a packed $1,000-per-head GOP fundraiser at his 10,800-square-foot mansion Cotswold Manor in Upper Arlington, Ohio. He was feted as a guest at then-President George W. Bush's Texas ranch, joining a cadre of “Pioneers and Rangers” who pledged to raise more than $100,000 for the Bush reelection campaign.

Most memorably, in 2003 O'Dell penned a letter pledging his commitment “to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President.” O'Dell defended his actions, telling the Cleveland Plain Dealer “I'm not doing anything wrong or complicated.” But he also promised to lower his political profile and “try to be more sensitive.” But the Diebold boss' partisan cards were squarely on the table.

Prior to the 2004 election, Blackwell tried to award a $100 million unbid contract to Diebold for electronic voting machines. A storm of public outrage and a series of lawsuits forced him to cancel the deal. But a substantial percentage of Ohio's 2004 votes were counted by Diebold software and Diebold Opti-scan machines which frequently malfunctioned in the Democratic stronghold of Toledo. It was revealed in 2006 that Blackwell owned Diebold stock.

Diebold's GEMS election software was used in about half of Ohio counties in the 2004 election. Because of Blackwell's effort, 41 counties also used Diebold machines in Ohio's highly dubious 2005 election.

Also in the Ohio 2004 election, a whistleblower leaked documents revealing that Diebold had allegedly used illegal, uncertified hardware and software during California election.

Yes, Jim Crow was about segregation, which was about racism, while the Emancipation Proclamation released slaves from slavery, which was about control and power, two very different battles the black population had to fight in this country.

I'll just let that sink in a bit.

Slavery was about "control and power" but Jim Crow laws were not about "control and power". Laws preventing blacks from voting were not about "control and power". Lynching was not about "control and power". Police using water hoses and dogs to keep blacks from going to university was not about "control and power".

I think you summed up your position perfectly. I can't add anything more.

Meanwhile, user PopeRatzo (965947) believes that woman perform better. Or smell better.

Guilty as charged. Anyone who doesn't think women in STEM smell better than men in STEM has never worked in an all-male shop.

Why do you think they call them, "skunkworks"?

What the fuck do you think I meant when I said this?

So then help me understand. First you outline the history and then say it doesn't matter because it's "40 years ago"?

However long it takes the last generation to have caused the issue to fall out of power. Generally, this means the majority of them retiring and/or dying off.

That's simply not true. Structural inequities don't just disappear because the people who put them in place died off. Do you believe the structural inequities caused by 200 years of slaver disappeared 40 years after the Emancipation Proclamation? Because Jim Crow lasted over 80 more years, and 130 years later we still have lynchings in the form of police murdering unarmed black men.

To put it another way, if you have an imbalanced scale that you're watching (even if slowly) return to balance after the excess weight was removed from one side, adding weight to the other side will not make it return to balance faster; it will only result in the imbalance swinging to the other side.

This is a good metaphor. The problem is the numbers I posted a few comments back prove that the thumb still hasn't been removed from the side of the scale that has favored men all this time.

Using your scale metaphor, think about a scale that is way out of balance. One side is heavier than the other. How do you bring the scale into balance except adding weight to the side that is light or removing weight from the side that is heavy? And this is where the entire scale metaphor breaks down. Because the thing about having more women getting hired in STEM is not about "balancing" some scale" as it is about sharing the goodies that have traditionally been hoarded on one side of the scale. To you, that may feel like someone is taking something away from you, but the nice thing about equity is that when you have it, there's more to go around for everyone. Privilege shared is privilege multiplied, if you believe the philosophers of the Enlightenment.

So can they also discriminate by hiring more Asians because they're smarter? More Jews because they make better accountants? How about more blacks because the CEO made a bet on the company basketball team this year?

So, let's summarize:

The user known as "pla" (258480) believes that Asians are smart, Jews are good with money and those blacks really know how to play basketball.

Say, how do you feel about those Italians. Bunch of gangsters, right? Got any wisdom you can share regarding the Irish?

I'll bet you're a big supporter of ethics in game journalism. #GamerGate by way of Stormfront, amirite?

I see New York as a top state that people are fleeing from

Except, as you pointed out, New York's population is growing.

And New York City, ground zero for the DeBlasio commie marxist experiment, is growing at a rate of 3.9%.

I see New York as a top state that people are fleeing from

And I see Mississippi as the state where 4th graders are least likely to read.

And if you want to really see a state that still hasn't recovered from 2008, just check good old Konservatve Kansas.

http://www.salon.com/2015/03/1...

Eh? It's a fact that, in a time before I was even born, the world was a different place.

So history didn't exist before you were born? You should not let your lack of first-hand experience in something prevent you from having some understanding.

That era, when women didn't have the same educational opportunities as men, existed in my lifetime. It existed alongside lynchings, blacks being denied service at lunch counters and being systematically denied the right to vote. How long do you think it takes for a structural inequality to drain out of a society? And do you really blame people for trying to move that process forward?

it was socially unacceptable, at the time, for a woman to be educated.

Well, there it is. You were able to type those words without irony and still write half a dozen paragraphs as if it had never happened.

men committing suicide in record numbers as a starting point.

It's because record numbers of them have guns.

I'm not saying nurses are "unaccomplished" or that what they do is trivial, but it's not like they're tenured professors

Then why did you bring them up in a discussion about tenured professors?

1) "While sure, a black woman can get a job as a software developer easily because "diversity," she still has a tough row to hoe because her 90% white male geek colleagues bond over "Star Trek and Grand Theft Auto" and she will have a hard time fitting in."

Fitting in is the least of it. She's entering a world where the entire worldview has been co-opted by the desires of young men. It's why when there was a study of 250 evaluations, fully three-quarters referenced the woman's personality, using words like "abrasive" and "demanding" where only two referenced a man's personality. Because a woman coming to work in tech is expected to be "one of the guys" or will be seen as a "frigid bitch" (one of the terms used in an evaluation).

No, it's not just fitting in at the lunch room or around the water cooling. It's dealing with structural exclusion. And judging from the butthurt expressed in a lot of the comments here whenever the topic comes up, I don't see how anyone can honestly say there is no structural exclusion.

And the worst part, is the structural exclusion is to the detriment of the company or organization. A different study from 2013 showed that diverse workplaces make for more profitable companies and productive organizations. And that friend, is the reason companies are pushing for more diversity. It's not about "social justice" or feminism or whatever cockamamie conspiracy is cooked up in the heads of mens' rights advocates. It's dollars and cents. Diversity is good business.

http://www.newyorker.com/magaz...