I appreciate Dorian Abbot inviting the MIT Free Speech Alliance, of which I serve as Executive Director, to contribute a writeup of our September conference, given that our organization’s founding owes itself directly to Professor Abbot’s disinvitation
This morning, Fareed Zakaria motivated in me some extra thoughts... So with your permission, I'll exercise my freedom for them here: Why is Qatar negotiating the release of Israeli Hostages?
Except for not recognizing the existence of Israel, Doha harbors much of the Hamas leadership. Besides, they also particularly highlighted their sports corruption last year. Why did we let a country of twelve thousand squared kilometers host the World Cup? Why did we let a country that totally forbids gay relationships and alcoholic drinks host the World Cup? I hope that FIFA can address these concerns.
Regardless, it is of utmost importance that the negotiations are done in an intelligent neutral country that has no conflicts of interest. Bahrain, perhaps also Singapore, may be a fine option.
Exchanging 50 innocent Israelis for 150 criminal Palestinians reminds me of affirmative action. By the way, is there any progress in implementing MFE at our universities?
I just noticed that last week, a nazi sympathizer (using an anonymous account, of course) went through a rant across much of our blog. In general, I support viewpoint diversity, but those were extremely hateful and vulgar comments. Importantly, those comments were not academic in their nature, and they were surely irrelevant for STEM education. In general, they are very shameful for our group (I am now personally embarrassed sharing our articles with others).
I'm just checking: We are mostly a group of academics, correct? If that's the case, can we do something about such absurdly heinous behavior? It may be surely up for discussion here...
Earth's climate system does not need improvement. The appearance that it does is created by an application of the Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness by each of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UNIPCC) models under which an "abstract" event of the future for Earth's climate system is mistaken for a "concrete" event of the future for this system, where an "abstract" event of the future is "abstracted" (removed) from a location in space and time whereas a "concrete" event of the future has such a location. This is evident in the spaghetti diagrams by which UNIPCC climatologists "evaluate" their models (but without "validating" these models, as required under the scientific method of investigation) as the absence of a partition of time, each element of which is the location in time of a conditional outcome of an event of the future for Earth's climate system.
Peter, thank you for this report -- the success of MFSA is an inspiration, and a model for others to follow.
How would you describe the difference between Harvard and MIT student cultures?
This morning, Fareed Zakaria motivated in me some extra thoughts... So with your permission, I'll exercise my freedom for them here: Why is Qatar negotiating the release of Israeli Hostages?
Except for not recognizing the existence of Israel, Doha harbors much of the Hamas leadership. Besides, they also particularly highlighted their sports corruption last year. Why did we let a country of twelve thousand squared kilometers host the World Cup? Why did we let a country that totally forbids gay relationships and alcoholic drinks host the World Cup? I hope that FIFA can address these concerns.
Regardless, it is of utmost importance that the negotiations are done in an intelligent neutral country that has no conflicts of interest. Bahrain, perhaps also Singapore, may be a fine option.
With yesterday's election, I wonder if there will be some changes in the Hague. Will the ICJ, ICC, etc. start seriously pursuing Justice?
Exchanging 50 innocent Israelis for 150 criminal Palestinians reminds me of affirmative action. By the way, is there any progress in implementing MFE at our universities?
Dear Dorian,
I just noticed that last week, a nazi sympathizer (using an anonymous account, of course) went through a rant across much of our blog. In general, I support viewpoint diversity, but those were extremely hateful and vulgar comments. Importantly, those comments were not academic in their nature, and they were surely irrelevant for STEM education. In general, they are very shameful for our group (I am now personally embarrassed sharing our articles with others).
I'm just checking: We are mostly a group of academics, correct? If that's the case, can we do something about such absurdly heinous behavior? It may be surely up for discussion here...
Thank you,
Avi
Earth's climate system does not need improvement. The appearance that it does is created by an application of the Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness by each of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UNIPCC) models under which an "abstract" event of the future for Earth's climate system is mistaken for a "concrete" event of the future for this system, where an "abstract" event of the future is "abstracted" (removed) from a location in space and time whereas a "concrete" event of the future has such a location. This is evident in the spaghetti diagrams by which UNIPCC climatologists "evaluate" their models (but without "validating" these models, as required under the scientific method of investigation) as the absence of a partition of time, each element of which is the location in time of a conditional outcome of an event of the future for Earth's climate system.
Terry Oldberg
Engineer/Scientist/Public Policy Researcher
Referee, UNIPCC Climate Assessment Report 6
Los Altos Hills, California, USA
Please address questions and comments to terry_oldberg@yahoo.com