By William Collins(aka mra-uk):Education and research is a huge area. It comprises schools, higher education (HE) establishments and research institutes. The people involved are school pupils, university students, school teachers and university and research institute staff. There are plenty of areas in which gender differentials are evident and should be of concern. But our society’s concerns are partisan: they focus on areas where women are under-represented only, and ignore the greater issues facing males. Here I use Athena SWAN as an exemplar of that partisan phenomenon, though in truth it is society-wide.
Athena SWAN is dedicated to advancing women’s careers in HE and research, originally in STEMM subjects but now also more broadly. After reviewing Athena SWAN and its parent organisation, I present a brief summary of the gender disparities in school pupil achievement, in HE qualifications, in school staffing and in HE staffing. The issues on which Athena SWAN focus relate to just one part of one of these four areas: the senior staffing levels in HE, especially in STEMM. By presenting the bigger picture I reveal just how partisan is this selective focus. Moreover, I shall argue that even in this selected area, the under-representation of women is not the result of inequality but of choice.
"AVfM and, by proxy, the "Men's Rights Movement" just got completely destroyed by a woman. How did this happen? I guess not all 'red pills' are created equal."Feminism LOL
Don Quijones: As Sir Winston Churchill is alleged to have said, democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried. However, in this age of increasingly globalized governance the future of democracy is very much in question. Already many key economic decisions affecting our lives are being taken and implemented in complete secrecy behind hermetically closed doors. In the negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement between 12 nations including the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore and New Zealand, an army of over 600 corporate advisers have been allowed access to the accompanying text while the public and even members of Congress have largely been kept in the dark. Indeed, the only way for the uninitiated to learn about some – but far from all – of the potential repercussions of today’s trade agreements is through leaked documents. The current negotiations for a US-EU trade deal (TTIP) are so clandestine that the few Members of the European Parliament that are granted access can only view the plans in their original documentation, in a secure location, with the threat of espionage charges hanging over them if they are caught making copies or sharing the details with the public.
By Michael Snyder: Can you imagine a world where your home, your vehicles, your appliances and every single electronic device that you own is constantly connected to the Internet? This is not some grand vision that is being planned for some day in the future. This is something that is being systematically implemented right now. In 2015, we already have “smart homes”, vehicles that talk to one another, refrigerators that are connected to the Internet, and televisions that spy on us. Our world is becoming increasingly interconnected, and that opens up some wonderful possibilities. But there is also a downside. What if we rapidly reach a point where one must be connected to the Internet in order to function in society? Will there come a day when we can’t even do basic things such as buy, sell, get a job or open a bank account without it? And what about the potential for government abuse? Could an “Internet of Things” create a dystopian nightmare where everyone and everything will be constantly monitored and tracked by the government? That is something to think about. Today, the Internet has become such an integral part of our lives that it is hard to remember how we ever survived without it. And with each passing year, the number of devices connected to the Internet continues to grow at an exponential rate.
Cities across the globe are holding events to mark the 11th Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) in a bid to raise awareness on Tel Aviv’s atrocities against Palestinians. Press TV: The Apartheid Week is a series of annual international events including rallies, lectures, cultural performances, film screenings, multimedia displays along with activities related to the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the regime. Since their beginning in the Canadian city of Toronto in 2005, the annual events, held in February or March, have been spread to at least 200 cities across the globe. Among the events on Sunday, were gatherings and lectures in South Africa and the occupied Gaza Strip, where Palestinians kicked off a series of activities to commemorate the IAW. In South Africa, the descendants of anti-apartheid icons, along with over 85 organizations, trade unions, and political parties endorsed the IAW and urged citizens to join the campaign.
"We know all too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians,” one of the participants quoted a famous phrase by South Africa's iconic anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.
Real prostitutes get paid up front. Wives set you up, cheat on you, and take the cash and prizes on the back end. Hence the fitting title: Halfway hooker. Terrence Popp
"...Everything is done to provoke anger in males. Boys are given no guidance on how to manage anger, all they are given is blaming and shaming and there is no understanding for a male who exhibits anger, regardless of whether that male was provoked or has a history of abuse."Spetsnaz
Submitted by Tyler Durden: Slowly, all the lies of the "recovery", all the skeletons in the closet, and all the bodies swept under the rug are emerging.
Moments ago, Austrian ORF reported that there have been "spectacular developments" in the case of the Hypo Alpe Adria bad bank, also known as the Heta Asset Resolution, where an outside audit of Heta's balance sheet exposed a capital hole of up to 7.6 billion euros ($8.51 billion) which the government was not prepared to fill, the Austrian Financial Market Authority said. As a result, according to Reuters, the bad bank that was created in the aftermath of the Hypo collapse, is itself about to be unwound, as the bad bank itself goes bad!
"Austria's Financial Market Authority stepped in on Sunday to wind down "bad bank" Heta Asset Resolution and imposed a moratorium on debt repayments by the vehicle set up last year from the remnants of defunct lender Hypo Alpe Adria."
By Luigi Logan (aka Fidelbogen): The non-feminist revolution is not a “movement”, but a largely unconscious demographic upwelling of resistance to feminism and its consequences. It is an objectively historical process, of a spontaneous, organic and amoral character. Its center is everywhere, its perimeter nowhere, and its parts do not always accord with each other. We did not initiate or instigate this “revolution”. We did not invent it. We merely recognized it in action, and gave it a name. We have chosen the word “revolution” not because it sounds cool and glamorous, but because no better terminology occurs to us. A revolution is a thing which overturns or abrogates a system of authority, and does so without seeking permission. Indeed, it would be an ironic kind of revolution that would say to the establishment “may I overthrow you?”. But the non-feminist revolution is nothing of that sort. On the contrary, the non-feminist revolution works to reverse the entire spectrum of adverse consequences which feminist innovation has introduced. By this means, it nullifies the feminist project in toto. It works as a primordial energy upon a distributed range of attack points, and not all of the humans involved will intellectualize the meaning of their actions. That is, they might not be aware that they are compromising feminism as such. They might only be reacting to immediate life conditions, yet the combined effect of their actions will undermine the feminist power structure from many directions.
By Keep Talking Greece: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras outlined the first 5 legislation drafts that will be submitted to Parliament as soon as possible. The first draft law that will be submitted on Monday will concern measures to tackle the humanitarian crisis and relief measures to impoverished households. Furthermore, the Prime Minister announced that the government will submit a proposal to establish an committee that will “examine the conditions and the political responsibilities of those who bankrupted the country and led Greece to enforced borrowing.” In his speech at the extraordinary cabinet meeting that was televised live, Tsipras also ruled out a third bailout that allegedly Germany prepares for summer. Five legislation drafts: 1)Humanitarian crisis: free electricity and food for 300,000 poor households, free housing for 30,000 people. Food stamps through a pre-paid smart card that will be charged each week. Relief measures for 3.7 million natural person, very small, small and medium enterprises that owe up to €5,000 “without hope to ever pay back their debts again.”
Athena SWAN is dedicated to advancing women’s careers in HE and research, originally in STEMM subjects but now also more broadly. After reviewing Athena SWAN and its parent organisation, I present a brief summary of the gender disparities in school pupil achievement, in HE qualifications, in school staffing and in HE staffing. The issues on which Athena SWAN focus relate to just one part of one of these four areas: the senior staffing levels in HE, especially in STEMM. By presenting the bigger picture I reveal just how partisan is this selective focus. Moreover, I shall argue that even in this selected area, the under-representation of women is not the result of inequality but of choice.
