"A towering American agave plant that waited 80 years to flower and produce seeds is dying after fulfilling its purpose and will be taken down next month, its caretaker at the University of Michigan’s botanical gardens said."
This blog is on life-support, and the Globe didn't want to give you this one:
"Charlie Bothuell IV, Monique Dillard-Bothuel, Accused Of Torturing Boy
DETROIT (AP) — The father and stepmother of a 13-year-old boy were charged Friday with torture and child abuse in an investigation that began last summer when he was discovered among boxes in his father's basement after a highly publicized 11-day search by Detroit police.
Charlie Bothuell IV and Monique Dillard-Bothuell appeared in court by video from jail. Not-guilty pleas were entered by a magistrate, and bond was set at $500,000 each.
Charlie Bothuell V was 12 last June when police found him, describing him as "very thin, with marks on his upper body," the Wayne County prosecutor's office said.
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Related: Bonds reduced for father, stepmother in boy-in-basement case
"Suit portrays a Silicon Valley hostile to women" by David Streitfeld, New York Times February 23, 2015
SAN FRANCISCO — Many women in technology believe Silicon Valley is stuck in the past. They say they are rarely hired, promoted, or taken seriously and are confronted by sexism and harassment. They feel demeaned and discouraged.
Now, in a lawsuit set to go to trial this week, a jury will decide if one woman suffered discrimination. The proceedings could resonate widely: A guilty verdict will be billed as a sweeping indictment of the high-tech world, while a dismissal might supply ammunition to those who feel gender issues are being overplayed.
The accuser is Ellen Pao, who worked at one of the most prominent venture capital firms, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. At the center of the suit is John Doerr, a legendary investor who was Pao’s boss.
Pao says a married colleague pressured her into an affair and retaliated when she broke it off. When she complained, she says, she was discriminated against and got poor reviews, resulting ultimately in her dismissal. She accuses Kleiner of treating her “despicably, maliciously, fraudulently and oppressively” from “an improper and evil motive amounting to malice.”
Kleiner fired back last week by saying the affair was consensual and there was no discrimination. Pao did not succeed at Kleiner, the firm said, because she “lacked the ability to lead others, build consensus and be a team player, which is crucial to a successful career as a venture capital senior investing partner.”
The trial promises a rare unscripted peek at Silicon Valley. Court papers show it to be a place where colleagues become intimately involved, break up messily, work incessantly, and promote themselves remorselessly — a place like almost everywhere else in America, although perhaps a little more amorous. The couple first had sex “at a work event,” the papers say.
Pao is seeking as much as $16 million in damages to replace the income she says she never had a chance to make at Kleiner.
Since the suit was filed three years ago, Silicon Valley’s treatment of women has become a flash point, as nearly every month brings accusations of men behaving badly. Critics say startup entrepreneurs feel entitled to act like jerks, and venture capitalists pour money in because they are afraid of missing the next big thing. But the clubby world of venture funding remains almost exclusively male.
The total number of female partners at venture capital firms has declined to 6 percent from 10 percent in 1999, according to the Diana Project, a research effort on entrepreneurs. Fortune magazine, analyzing slightly different data, found the number of female VCs rose in 2014, by one.
Kleiner says the firm is being maligned. It says more than 20 percent of its partners are women, and it backs startups run by women at four times the rate of the rest of the industry.
“We look forward to clearing our name in court,” said Christina Lee, a Kleiner spokeswoman.
Pao did not respond to a request for comment.
Her complaint, filed in 2012, says a Kleiner partner did not invite any women to an important dinner because “women kill the buzz”; that another partner gave her Leonard Cohen’s sex-drenched “Book of Longing”; and that the same partner told her “the personalities of women” did not bring success at Kleiner.
A Princeton-trained engineer and Harvard-trained lawyer with deep experience in technology, Pao is now interim CEO of Reddit.
“It is very rare that an individual discrimination case reaches a jury, in Silicon Valley or elsewhere,” said Melinda Riechert, a high-tech employment lawyer. “Most cases settle.” There doesn’t seem to be much chance of that happening here. Mediation accomplished little.
“To say it was unproductive would be an understatement,” said Lynne Hermle, a lawyer for the firm.
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"Trial opens in Silicon Valley gender bias suit" by Paul Elias and Sudhin Thanawala, Associated Press February 24, 2015
SAN FRANCISCO — The trial of a high-profile sex bias lawsuit in Silicon Valley began Tuesday with a lawyer for a former junior partner at a venture capital firm claiming his client was denied a promotion because of her gender and then fired when she complained.
In his opening statement, lawyer Alan Exelrod said plaintiff Ellen Pao was discriminated against in the male-dominated culture of Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers — the defendant in the case that has sparked debate over the treatment of women in the high-tech and venture capitalist arenas.
Exelrod said Pao, 45, had received erotic poetry and sketches of nude women from a senior partner at the firm, and another male employee interfered with her work when Pao broke off an affair with him.
The firm has denied wrongdoing and said Pao was a poor performer who didn’t get along with her colleagues. An attorney for the firm was expected to give an opening statement later in the day.
Pao is seeking $16 million in damages. The trial in San Francisco Superior Court could last four weeks. The jury includes five men and seven women.
Venture capital firms provide much of the startup funds for tech companies and have a reputation as being even more insular and male-dominated than the companies they help launch.
‘‘This case is a wakeup call,’’ said longtime Stanford University law professor Deborah Rhode, who teaches gender equity law. ‘‘The case has sparked a much-needed debate about gender inequality regardless of its merit.’’
Women hold 15 to 20 percent of the technology jobs at tech giants Google, Apple, Facebook, and Yahoo, according to disclosures by the companies.
The firms acknowledge needing to do more to hire female engineers but largely attribute the problem to cultural issues that discourage girls and young women from taking classes needed to pursue careers in computer coding and website design.
Venture capital firms are even more slanted toward men. A 2011 survey by the National Venture Capital Association found women accounted for 11 percent of investors.
A study released last year by Babson College in Wellesley found that women filled just 6 percent of the partner-level positions at 139 venture capital firms in 2013, down from 10 percent in 1999.
Kleiner fired Pao in 2012 — six months after she filed her lawsuit. She had been hired in 2005 to serve as chief of staff for senior partner John Doerr, who helped direct early investments in Google and Amazon and who currently serves on President Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
Pao left the administrative position with Doerr in 2010 to become a junior partner with full-time investment duties.
Pao claims she was excluded from important meetings, email chains and company dinners because women ‘‘kill the buzz’’ of such festive occasions, according to the lawsuit.
Funny. I'm no longer high on Boston Globe slop.
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"A case of Silicon Valley mores, potential gender bias, and $16m
SAN FRANCISCO — A lawyer for a former junior partner suing a venture capital firm in a Silicon Valley sex bias suit contended Tuesday his client was passed over for promotions because she was a woman and then fired after she complained. In his opening trial statement, attorney Alan Exelrod described a male-dominated culture at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers — the defendant in the case that has sparked debate over the treatment of women in the high-tech and venture capitalist arenas. Exelrod said his client, 45-year-old Ellen Pao, had received erotic poetry and sketches of nude women from a senior partner at the firm, and another male employee had interfered with her work when Pao broke off an affair with him. The firm has denied wrongdoing and says Pao was a poor performer who didn’t get along with her colleagues. In addition, defense lawyer Lynne Hermle, citing a study by a Harvard professor, said in her opening statement that the company has been a leader in supporting women in technology. Pao is seeking $16 million in damages."
Wow, what a tinder box.
I hope she doesn't end up homeless and living on the beach.
UPDATES: Pao Wow
I've already again up enough on that, sorry.
