Exit numbers

Though they clearly have data on highway exit numbers (since they show up in the driving directions), exit numbers don't appear in Google's map view. This is irritating. Most of their competitors show them; to my mind this is a major attraction of Windows Live Local, though it may not outweigh the service's UI irritations.

I had a theory that this is because Google is in California, where there is no established system of exit numbers. They may not realize that exit numbers are actually used in conversation in the Northeast when giving driving directions.

However, the omission may be more due to Navteq, which supplies Google's maps and map data. Yahoo Maps, which also uses Navteq's map data, omits exit numbers as well. And while Yahoo is another California company, Navteq seems to be based in Chicago, where there are exit numbers. So I'm not sure what the reasoning is.

Nerd bravado

Brad DeLong excerpts an article by Peter Lawrence suggesting that the predominance of men in certain creative and scientific fields arises in part because the personnel selection process emphasizes aggression and self-promotion.

(Personally, I suspect that Lawrence is underestimating the effect of overt sex discrimination in science because he's a biologist. In physics, at least in the US, it's much, much more obvious. But that's beside my point.)

Anyway, in DeLong's comments, somebody identifying himself as "George W. Bush" explains what he thinks is the real problem with women in technical fields (specifically in engineering), and it's kind of strange:
( Why girls are no good!! )