drafting "Nadir" and "Interlude VII"

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+Title: Interlude VII
+Date: 2017-07-23
+Category: fiction
+Tags: interlude
+
+"The gender ratio at the conference was like, maybe twenty-to-one?" he said. "And I can't help but think, if I were braver—like you—I could help make the male-to-female ratio better—but only at the expense of making the trans women to cis women ratio worse."
+
+"You mean, making the trans-to-cis women ratio _higher_."
+
+A beat.
+
+"But go on," she added.
+
+"No, of course, you're right."

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+Title: The Nadir of Reading Comprehension
+Date: 2017-08-23
+Category: commentary
+Tags: discourse, sex differences
+
+["Against Discrimination"](http://www.nature.com/news/against-discrimination-1.22459), _Nature_ [(hat tip /u/PellegoIllud2 and /u/TheCid)](https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/6up9fw/culture_war_roundup_for_the_week_following_august/dlytq28/?context=1):
+
+> [Difference between groups is] also a blunt instrument of pseudoscience, and one used to justify actions and policies that condense claimed group differences into tools of prejudice and discrimination against individuals—witness last weekend’s violence by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the controversy over a Google employee’s memo on biological differences in the tastes and abilities of the sexes.
+
+But if you _actually read it_, the Google employee's memo [agrees completely](https://firedfortruth.com/2017/08/08/first-blog-post/) (emphasis mine):
+
+> I'm simply stating that the distribution of preferences and abilities of men and women differ in part due to biological causes and that these differences may explain why we don't see equal representation of women in tech and leadership. _Many of these differences are small and there's significant overlap between men and women, so you can’t say anything about an individual given these population level distributions._
+
+The distressing thing about this whole affair (and others like it—I am old enough to remember the Larry Summers imbroglio back in 'aught-five) is the extent to which the vast majority of the outrage over Damore's document fails to engage with _what he actually said_. Damore is _very explicit_ about how he's making an argument about distributions. (I liked [Diana Fleischman‏'s take](https://twitter.com/sentientist/status/894959693822558209).) Whether you agree or disagree with his arguments and whether you approve or disapprove of his being fired, one would hope for people to be judged for the content of what they _actually said_, rather than a perceived tribal aura of sexism or anti-sexism. (One wonders exactly what hypothesized value of Cohen's _d_ separates good and evil.)
+
+It would be one thing if it were just the middlebrow, the Twitter mobs and _Gizmodo_s of the world getting this wrong. But _Nature_! Perhaps the flagship publication of our civilization's scientific endeavors! 
+
+reason to _solve problems_ (including social problems).
+
+If the brightest and most exalted among us 
+
+http://unremediatedgender.space/2017/Mar/smart/
+http://unremediatedgender.space/2017/Jan/from-what-ive-tasted-of-desire/