Tom

America is a fraction as generous with social support and progressive laws and EXTREMELY stingy on social programs (many non-existant in many states) as Europe/Canada/NZ/Japan, all under the petty excuse that it is too expensive, “personal responsibility” and [fill in the blank] and it pretty much shows across the country. The US has a level of…[Read more]

In fact I totally forgot about Malta which is technically bilingual (Maltese and English) where virtually everyone speaks English fluently. When COVID is over it is a good place to quickly pick up work. Reg is right about London. When I lived there I could get a decent paying office job within a day or two. After a little bit of experience you…[Read more]

I was, at some point, forced to choose between my Spanish passport and all my other ones and I chose the others (because you don’t need the Spanish passport if you have another EU one). Spain doesn’t allow citizens of other countries to obtain a Spanish passport without renouncing the other ones (unless you are from a former Spanish colony).…[Read more]

On the one hand we shouldn’t be so quick to idealise the European modern welfare state. I mean some countries are a whole lot better than others, that doesn’t mean it is a paradise for parents in all jobs (certainly the lower status the job the more likely your boss will face pressures to keep workers on as many shifts as possible) and yeah, it’s…[Read more]

In most of Western Europe companies offer all kinds of flexibility to parents with sick children. I don’t have a single friend in Spain or Belgium whose career was put on hold or faced aggressive bosses because they had to pick up their sick child and take them to a doctor or who wasn’t given a chance to make up for the work or even just paid for…[Read more]

Whether it is social pressure or not is entirely relevant. Men in the 21st century put in tons more hours in housework and play a monumentally larger role in raising children than even 50 years ago which show attitudes can change if society is willing, for example to not overburden women with a disproportionately unfair burden of child rearing and…[Read more]

No. The only thing your study shows is that women in the bus driving and train driving sector are less likely to take overtime. It says NOTHING about equal pay. They are working in a rare environment where pay is mandated by the government and/or union. In other words equal pay is FORCED on them, not determined by the market and social bias. You…[Read more]

That is a study in one of the few work places where men and women are GUARANTEED the same wage. So in this case, yes, they make the same salary. So, in fact, there is no gender disparity in wages here so the only actual conclusion you can make from this article is that in the train and bus driving sector men are 50% more likely to ask for…[Read more]

I haven’t read her books so I cannot say. I just read in a review of her works that she gets into the supernatural and spooky new age ideas (stuff that cannot be verified or tested or falsified). Let me know what you think when you are done reading the book.

Most countries have a supreme court with a limited time on the bench and even have courts where the justices are selected by an apolitical committee. I don’t think it is brain science that a justice should be as apolitical as possible and not serve on the bench forever.

I remember reading an article about Florence Shinn. From what I remember he writings were equal parts interesting life advice and total supernatural nonsense (especially the: the world wants you to succeed and you can do anything if you just believe in it). She was a pioneer in life advice (that can be a good thing) but also one of the people who…[Read more]

You can point out a lot of silly stupid things that new atheists like Dawkins, Harris and Boghosian have said (not their critique of religion but outside of that)…but it’s hard to think of examples of this when it comes to Hitchens. He was a snarky dick a lot of the time but that’s a personality trait, not a failing. Hitchens was actually pretty…[Read more]

I read the Old Testament, which to be honest is a fairly fascinating read. There are a few adventure stories, a kind of strange historical chronicle, the schizophrenic insanity of a murderous God doing cruel barbaric things to entire cities, lists of really disturbing laws and in a couple books a singular obsession with the sexual lives of others.…[Read more]

No unseen. As stem fields are slowly (hardly there yet) becoming less hostile to women entering stem fields, the enrolment of women in STEM university courses are over all reaching parity with men (in some fields surpassing them). Sexual harassment and discrimination against women in STEM fields is still rampant to the point that it is seriously…[Read more]

Uhhh…Unseen I wasn’t disagreeing with you in any way nor challenging you nor trying to twist your words. While you have in the past made gender generalisations that I believe are informed by stereotypes I didn’t claim you had in this case. I was talking about something that was similarly related. Please don’t jump to conclusions that you are…[Read more]

In fact Unseen, one of the few generalisations about men and women per differences in attraction that actually stands up to empirical testing is how far more likely men are to be attracted or even turned on by facsimiles of people (a mannequin or cartoon or even an animal character such as a highly sexualised cat character in a comic). Sexuality…[Read more]

Wow that guy went from making cheesy top 10 videos to something a little more substantive. I enjoyed watching the recent series “Star Trek Picard” which deals with the problem of artificial intelligence in the last half of the series. It dealt,  to some extent with a self-fulfilling prophecy. The belief that it was inevitable that AI would one…[Read more]