e-commentary

. . .

1          “TED is a clever acronym.  Technology, Engineering and Design.  Three universes and infinite possibilities.  ‘Ideas worth spreading,’ they allege.”

2          “On first hearing, it sounds like a program named after your favorite smallmouth bass fishing buddy.”

1          “That is part of what reels them in.  Our friend TED covers the usual 3E programs – energy, economics, and the environment – and everything in between and on all sides.  Local programs are identified by the small letter ‘x’ and then the community such as ‘TEDx Gotham City’ or ‘TEDx Dodge.’”

2          “I thought the ‘x’ stands for the second ‘x’ chromosome.  By design, the speakers are from diverse backgrounds, yet they still tend toward more males than females.  However, the local organizers and more than 53 percent of the attendees are double ‘xx’ers.  But that is not why the local programs are not called ‘TEDy Shangri-La.’”

1          “That was my first thought.  Just because the ‘y’ chromosome so often correlates with goonery and buffoonery does not mean that all males are goons and buffoons.  Really.”

2          “Not all of them.  But the local programs may need to be called ‘THEODORAx’ or ‘DOROTHEAx.’”

1          “Or keep the males in the loop and call the local programs ‘DOROTHyx.’”

. . .

2          “Women undertake most of the jobs in non-profit entities.”

1          “Yet the White boys still hold most of the positions of power in for-profit entities.”

2          “But one can say with a high degree of confidence that it is not because of talent.  The White boys are there because of market distortions.”

. . .

1          “With women surpassing males in high school and college, the emerging civil rights issue is whether a less talented cohort of males can be admitted in the interest of maintaining roughly equal numbers of males and females in a class.”

2          “Instead of a young woman going to college to get an MRS. degree, today’s young man goes to college to get an MR. degree.”

1          “If he gets in.”           

. . .

[See the website http://www.ted.com/pages/about.]

Bumper stickers of the week

TED:  Ideas worth spreading

Ideas:  Good, especially good ones.

This entry was posted on April 8, 2013 at 8:28 am and is filed under Economics, Energy, Environment, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.