Month: August 2018

My parents told me that in the 1950s to describe someone as having “beautiful eyes” was code for “fat”. “‘I love you but hate feeling like a booty call’: Harvey Weinstein rape accuser gushes about his ‘beautiful eyes’ and says ‘no one understands her like him’ in newly released emails sent after her alleged assault” (Daily Mail) suggests that the practice continues! (whatever one thinks of Harvey, presumably we can all agree that he is fat)

Related:

• Where can Harvey Weinstein go for a peaceful retirement? (why did the guy stick around in order to be carved up by prosecutors and defense lawyers?)

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On the joys of working in a modern tech company, from a friend via Facebook Messenger:

[Rosalie] has been hiring whoever is best for the job. She was spoken to and told that she cannot hire any more men until they have a lot more women at the company. One of the other people in charge is a “big proponent of getting women into the workforce.”

This woman also spent the last several months on building a webpage of the “company values” and is making other employees write up what they think the company values should be.

Before Donald Trump was elected, Hillary and the media warned us that the U.S. would enter a dark cruel age for women and minorities. It has been 1.5 years since Trump took office. Yet at my friend’s wife’s company, there is now more opportunity for women than ever.

What about at the biggest and best employers? Here’s an article on Google’s 2017 diversity initiatives:

The civil complaint explains that Arne Wilberg, who is described as a 40-year-old white man by The Wall Street Journal, worked as a recruiter for YouTube for seven years. In his job, Wilberg was tasked with helping to select engineering and tech talent for YouTube and Google.

According to the lawsuit, Wilberg received high marks for his performance as a recruiter until he began pushing back against Google’s efforts to hire a more diverse workforce in 2017. His manager, Allison Alogna, informed Wilberg and his colleagues that they were to “only accept” a certain rank of engineers (“Level 3”) if they were diverse.

[excerpt from Complaint] In April of 2017, Google’s Technology Staffing Management team was instructed by Alogna to immediately cancel all Level 3 (0-5 years experience) software engineering interviews with every single applicant who was not either female, Black, or Hispanic and to purge entirely any applications by non-diverse employees from the hiring pipeline. Plaintiff refused to comply with this request.

If we are to believe the facts as alleged, it seems that the opposite of what was predicted actually happened. Shortly after Donald Trump took office, Google reduced employment opportunities for white males and increased them for women and desirable minorities.

How about the #MeToo movement? Wikipedia dates it to 2017. It is tough to see how white males have been the primary beneficiaries of the #MeToo movement.

What are the concrete disadvantages that women and minorities have actually suffered as a consequence of Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton?

Related:

• Casting out the heretic at Google
• No free lunch (at Google) for thought criminals

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“Why Americans—Especially Women—Are Drinking More Alcohol” (TIME, 2017) was recently highlighted by a Facebook friend because of this passage:

Added stress is another factor that might drive anyone, regardless of their sex, to drink more. High-risk drinking was higher among minority groups, and the authors argue that wealth inequality between minorities and whites has widened during and after the 2008 recession, which may have led to “increased stress and demoralization.” Income and educational disparities, as well as “unemployment, residential segregation, discrimination, decreased access to health care, and increased stigma associated with drinking,” may also play a role, the authors write.

In other words, some Americans are so poor now that they have no choice but to spend gobs of money on beer, wine, and mixed drinks.

I wonder how much of the extra drinking could be accounted for by heavier weights. Americans today can be 50 lbs. heavier than their counterparts from the 1950s. A person with 50 lbs. of extra weight will need additional alcohol to feel the same effect, no?

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A bunch of readers have sent me “Alberta man changes gender on government IDs for cheaper car insurance” (CBC). But this $1,100 (Canadian) hero was not a pioneer.

“Man legally changes his gender to identify as a woman ‘so he can retire five years earlier’ in Argentina” (Daily Mail, March 2018):

Sergia Lazarovich, 60, a government worker from the northern province of Salta, applied to change her gender in June last year, having lived for decades as Sergio.

The change was approved recently but a relative has since come forward to accuse Sergia of lying and trying to cheat the pension system.

Argentinian law allows any person to change their gender on identity documents to match their self-perception, without having to provide evidence of hormone treatment or gender reassignment surgery.

The law also allow women to retire on a state pension aged 60, whereas men have to wait until age 65.

Sergia has been in multiple heterosexual relationships including with the mother of her two children to whom she was married for 25 years.

She has never expressed an interest in men, and continued dating women even after registering for the change, the relative said.

Sergia has also never expressed an interest in living as a woman before and even made disparaging comments about gays and transsexuals, the relative claimed.

Confronted by the statement, Sergia accused newspapers of printing lies and said the decision to change genders was personal.

‘The motivations are mine and I do not have to explain anything to anyone,’ he told the El Tribuno newspaper.

Spanish-speaking readers: How is Sergia doing? Has she joined the Check of the Month club down in Salta?

Related:

• You can pay McKinsey to run a quota system at your company (discusses options such as paying workers to change gender ID)

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