Tuesday, May 31, 2016

It's a Girl Thing

Don't feel like reading? Listen to the Podcast (4:52)

*1. It's a Girl Thing

From NYT - Paula Broadwell, David Petraeus and the Afterlife of a Scandal

"This is also the Paula Broadwell who would be publicly portrayed as a "homewrecker," a "stalker," a "temptress," the woman who "brought down the director of the C.I.A." And, perhaps with the most frequency, as the "mistress," a word for which there is no male equivalent."

"Mr. Petraeus is now a partner in a New York private equity firm, and has advised the White House on the war against the Islamic State. He publishes op-ed articles, speaks publicly and has affiliations with three universities, including Harvard."

"Ms. Broadwell has struggled to find her footing."

In the article, Broadwell asks how long she has to pay for her mistake. She has a point. Petraeus kind of gets a pass and is largely moving on. She is still in purgatory. It takes two to tango.

+ From Quartz - To be a female politician in Japan, sometimes you have to put up with being groped by voters

"A Kyodo News survey found that 59% of female local politicians reported sexual harassment from male colleagues and voters."

+ From Quartz - A Chinese parking lot has extra-wide “female only” spaces because women “can’t reverse”

"The spots are outlined in pink and feature the universal symbol for "woman." The female-only spaces are 50% larger than ordinary spaces."

How about some positive female news...

+ From Quartz - A female James Bond is exactly what the franchise needs right now

That female would be Gillian Anderson and I would be okay with her as Bond. However, Idris Elba still gets my vote for the next Bond. What is clear, though, is the Bond franchise is due for a little shakeup.

*2. Tragedy on the High Seas

From BBC - European migrant crisis: Shipwrecks 'kill up to 700 migrants'

"The deaths...point to the lack of solutions to the migrant crisis."

It has been a rough week for migrants trying to get to Europe launching from the North African coast into the Mediterranean Sea. Something is going to have to be done about this.

*3. A Real Life "Minority Report"

From Reveal - Can an algorithm be any better than a coin toss at finding criminals?

"...the risk formula wrongly flagged black defendants as future criminals...the tool was exceptionally bad at predicting future acts of violence."

+ From Ozy - Can This Woman Predict Campus Rape?

"The main innovation of her [Jessica Ladd] platform is that it allows victims to write a report online...without going to the authorities."

We are horrible at predicting the future of ANYTHING - from the stock market, to crime, to social uprisings. Big data trends may hold some promise, but for now the data shows we have a LONG way to go.

*4. Nancy Reagan turned to him [Miles Davis] and asked what he'd done with his life to merit an invitation [to dinner at the White House]...

Miles replied, "Well, I've changed the course of music five or six times."

From FastCompany - Celebrate Miles Davis With This Interactive Website Mapping His Creative Universe

This year is the 25th anniversary of Miles' death. I've only started playing with the tool referenced in the FastCompany article, but it is way more easier than the 75 pages I printed from Wikipedia trying to get my arms around the Miles Davis discography.

*5. Creating a Broken Generation

From NYT - Those With Multiple Tours of War Overseas Struggle at Home

"After 14 years of war, the number of veterans with multiple tours of combat duty is the largest in modern American history. Researchers are finding that [contemporary] fighters do not easily fit into the classic mold of veterans traumatized by their experience in war. [Contemporary] veterans must unlearn the very skills that kept them alive [in combat]: unceasing vigilance; snap decision making; intolerance for carelessness; the urge to act fast and decisively."

We knew something was going to happen to the men we sent into battle. We are understanding better what that something is and now the VA must move rapidly to address this issue, or risk a broken generation.

*BOTTOM OF THE NEWS

* Technology is changing how we live, but it needs to change how we work

* How America Lost Its Mojo (Hint: Cost of housing in most productive cities)

* Map: These are the cities that climate change will hit first (Hint: It's coming faster then we think)

*BONUS STUFF

*From WaPo - The odd story of a crow that meddled in a crime scene — by stealing a knife

You may have seen the above photo on Facebook. I guess that answers that...

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