(no subject)

Всеме недовольным своими in-laws:
http://www.anekdot.ru/an/an0805/o080527.html#14

Фильм ужасов. Свекровь как всегда отмочила. Просили ж внуков не
пугать... Со слов свидетеля-мужа:
Внучка (3 годика) в первый раз приехала к бабушке-дедушке в другой город
(до этого знала их по редким однодневным визитам, а гостить к ним ездили
ее старшие братья, к слову постоянно с какими-то фобиями
возвращающиеся). В первый же вечер играет с бабушкой, и расшалившись,
врезается головой бабуле в лицо. Бабушка, которой даже и больно-то не
было, начинает голосить, вынимает из рта вставную челюсть: "Смотри, ты
мне все зубы выбила!" Девочка моя с остекленевшими глазенками медленно
поворачивается и, сорвавшись с места, взбирается, как по дереву, папе на
руки, дрожа и подвывая: "я не хотела бабушке больно делать!"
Бабуля - медик, хирург. Это шутки у них такие, куда бы деться, блин?!..

The freedom to say 'no'

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/05/18/the_freedom_to_say_no/?page=full

Why aren't there more women in science and engineering? Controversial new research suggests: They just aren't interested.

Rosenbloom and his colleagues used a standard personality-inventory test to measure people's preferences for different kinds of work. In general, Rosenbloom's study found, men and women who enjoyed the explicit manipulation of tools or machines were more likely to choose IT careers - and it was mostly men who scored high in this area. Meanwhile, people who enjoyed working with others were less likely to choose IT careers. Women, on average, were more likely to score high in this arena.

Personal preference, Rosenbloom and his group concluded, was the single largest determinative factor in whether women went into IT. They calculated that preference accounted for about two-thirds of the gender imbalance in the field. The study was published in November in the Journal of Economic Psychology.

It may seem like a cliche - or rank sexism - to say women like to work with people, and men prefer to work with things. Rosenbloom acknowledges that, but says that whether due to socialization or "more basic differences," the genders on average demonstrate different vocational interests.

"It sounds like stereotypes," he said in an interview, "but these stereotypes have a germ of truth."

In the language of the social sciences, Rosenbloom found that the women were "self-selecting" out of IT careers. The concept of self-selection has long interested social scientists as an explanation for how groups sort themselves over time. Since human beings are heterogeneous, self-selection predicts that when offered a menu of options and freedom of choice, people will make diverse choices and sort themselves out in nonrandom ways. In other words, even given the same opportunities, not everybody will do the same thing - and there are measurable reasons that they will act differently from one another.