Thursday, July 19, 2012

Statistics Series: Samples. Part 1


The first post can be found here.

This series is a summer rerun.  I recommend it if you have never taken statistics.  Note that it is NOT a substitute for an actual statistics course.  It dips into the material a bit and it tries to do it in a way which does not provoke math phobias.  At some points I skate on fairly thin ice because of my desire to keep things as simple as possible but I hope I didn't fall through.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

On The Feminism Series, in Hindsight (2012)


The series is not complete and some of those posts do need editing and rewriting.  But I still agree with them.  I'd add something about the much intensified misogyny*, especially via the Internet.  That is a real problem.

If you doubt that, check out the Manboobs blog in the list on the right.  Then randomly look at a few YouTube comments which are linked to female athletes, say.

The misogyny is almost impossible to avoid.  This does not mean that most men or women are misogynists.  It's likely just a small percentage.  But they sure are loud.  Sadly, they are often pretty stupid.  For instance, I just (June 29th)  got back from reading an opinion piece which argued that women only write about trivial shit and that politics and economics are not fields that would interest those hen-brained chicks.

Very funny, given that I write on economics and politics.  But what's even funnier is that this man quite seriously gave as evidence for his arguments that some study found that girls between the ages of fifteen and seventeen mostly write blogs about clothes.

Why would the louder misogyny make feminism more important?  After all, the misogynists often argue that they are fighting feminism, not women, though they then lapse into bashing even very docile women who do all they are told.

Heh.  The reason is right there.  No misogynist will ever be satisfied that the level of oppression is adequate.  And the only way to fight misogyny is for right-thinking people to point it out and ridicule it whenever they come across it.

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*Misogyny itself may not be more intense.  But the chances of  meeting it in one's daily life are much higher now that we are all on the net.  This holds even if that "one" religiously tries to avoid getting sprayed by it.   Like poison ivy or someone pissing on your shoes.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

A Repost: The Longest Revolution


The last post in the feminism series.  At least so far.

Greetings from Europe



And my deepest apologies for all readers in other countries save the US.  The blog looks like real crap when read from here.  Things will change when I get back from frolicking in the sun rain.