TED talks

Jess That's a wonderful link! I found myself applauding AM.

Yes he is a bit of a star isn't he.
The bit where he had to try the sanitary pad s on himself because he couldn't find any indian women to volunteer.

Hands up to him, I say. How many men would do that?

Is TED an acronym?

Yes Technology Education ... um...
It is a global phenomenon anyway. People get up and give a short interesting talk. The talks go on line. Nonprofit organisation. Tedx are independent events organised under the umbrella of big ted, as it were.

pheonix Technology, Education and Design.

I am a fan of these lectures.

I love these TED talks. I didn't know anything about them until my son showed me them on netflix - but you can also get them as an app on your phone. There are some really inspiring talks.

JessM posted a link bit.ly/TD05mm to a talk by a wonderful Indian man who discovered that his wife was having to scrimp on food to buy STs so he set to and designed an affordable machine to make them cheaply and at the same time provide work for women in rural areas. Have a look, it is inspiring, and very funny at times.

Wrong thread, sorry. I was replying to another thread where someone asked about a reference to TED STs.

The man is right to try to make modern sanitary protection available to all women, BUT in the UK VAT is still applied to sanitary towels and tampons.

Yes, the rate applied has gone down to 5% (the same as "essentials" such as gas & electricity etc) where it was previously a shocking 17.5%, the same as "luxury" goods, but did you know that mens razor blades are tax exempt? And even so, there have been questions raised in parliament recently with regard to how expensive razor blades are getting!?

The average women will need some form of menstruation related sanitary items for around 40 years of her life, and that is a conservative estimate as girls are reaching puberty quite a bit earlier these days.

Men can choose to shave or not, women can't opt out from having periods. Even at the lower rate, HMRC is still making money out of women!

Meanwhile I was surprised to learn that we have a minister for women and that she has made her first speech, against quotas of women in boardrooms. I will not hold my breath awaiting her next pronouncement.

I haven't read about that yet, Jess, but surely we don't want token women appointed to boards just to make up a prescribed quota?

Every position should be gained on merit, experience and suitability for the post, regardless of other factors.

The way that politcal correctness is going, it could end up that you have to be a disabled lesbian from an ethnic minority to even get past the initial screening.

Well done that man! Employment too!

elegran

I first saw this thread in (In the news.. When will some men learn...... )

I think its another victim of disappearing threads. Like the nuclear power one.

? Thread confusion, or is it me?

Sorry no its me being tangential. Back to TED. We have TEDx events here now, there is one in December. TED is holding a big women's issues event in NY. We have 3 speakers in MK and then live stream of of some talks from NY. Should be an inspiring Sunday afternoon in December.

I hope it's not the position that 'token women' are being appointed to boardrooms or any other job. But it is the case that many able women who could and should be appointed are being overlooked or worse, discriminated against. Quotas can help to ensure a better balance. Attitudes are changing in many industries, board rooms, schools, etc but there are still bastions of male chauvinism ruled over by pompous old asses boys. And sadly the likes of Margaret Thatcher put the cause of equity back a decade.

I personally favour open recruitment to boards of directors. That would be progress. As it is, board members put forward people they know for these posts and because most board members are chaps, then who do they recommend? The result is a great lack of diversity on boards.
I guess a period of quotas would serve to break this mould and mean that they would have to start advertising.

A brief period of [unfair] quotas to counterbalance centuries of prejudice and bias would not necessarily be a bad thing. No one is suggesting that totally unsuitable/unqualified women should be appointed.

As opposed to totally unsuitable and unqualified males? How many of us have suffered under such specimens?

Well how have the banks managed to escalate directors salaries so much - the directors set remuneration.