A speech without substance
in [Golf]
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From: William Clark on 14 Sep 2008 12:47 In article <pcadnVDPT-8Ft1DVnZ2dnUVZ_hWdnZ2d(a)comcast.com>, BAR <screw(a)you.com> wrote: > William Clark wrote: > > In article <f9qdnUBNy6Pym1DVnZ2dnUVZ_vninZ2d(a)comcast.com>, > > BAR <screw(a)you.com> wrote: > > > >> Carbon wrote: > >>> On Sat, 13 Sep 2008 19:59:42 -0400, BAR wrote: > >>>> William Clark wrote: > >>>>> In article <De2dnWiJyp5Jh1HVnZ2dnUVZ_sbinZ2d(a)comcast.com>, > >>>>> BAR <screw(a)you.com> wrote: > >>>>> > >>>>>> Where is his undergraduate transcript? > >>>>> I doubt you could read it correctly even if it was provided. If this is > >>>>> your best effort to disparage his academic record, I think you should > >>>>> find something else to occupy your time. > >>>> He must have barely graduated from Columbia. > >>> You sure are wrong a lot. Harvard Law is the top law school in the > >>> country. They do not accept bottom of the barrel students (i.e. McCain > >>> and Palin), period. How can you possibly not know that? > >> If Obama's undergraduate degree from Columbia was awarded based upon > >> superior achievement or merit he would have put that on he resume. But, > >> he doesn't mention it. > > > > Perhaps in your world people have to flaunt the most meagre > > achievements. However, in others, and higher education in general, we > > tend not to make a fuss about them. It's deemed to be poor taste. > > Titles are meaningless in academia? No, they are ranks, just like in the military you idolize. Of course, this has absolutely nothing to do with SATs, GPAs, etc. Sigh.
From: William Clark on 14 Sep 2008 12:54 In article <48CD2C6B.E115F22B(a)att.net>, The Professor <DBID(a)att.net> wrote: > BAR wrote: > > > > > > > Titles are meaningless in academia? > > He's right in a way. While it is inappropriate to refer to a Ph.D. as Dr., we > all > insist on it. I personally don't like it. However, the status quo in > academia, at > the underachiever level, and in most fields, if not all, most people are > underachievers, is quite oppressive. What nonsense! A PhD is a "doctor" in the truest sense of the word. It is derived from the Latin "docere", meaning to teach. It has nothing etymologically to do with medicine. I come from a family full of physicians of various ilks. When I got my DPhil, my father remarked that it was good finally to have a proper doctor in the family. > > One area where he is wrong is science, anyways, only cares about what you > *DID* > yesterday. You can have 15 Nobel Prizes, and 1 billion in grants, but if you > don't do anything meaningful today, no one will care about you. Not to say > you > won't get invited to give talks and have the underachievers fawn over you, > but > people who are really making things happen will only correspond with you if > you > are one of them; making things happen. I am sorry your academic experience seems to have been so disappointing. However, you are wrong here, too. I recall Watson and Crick giving an invited talk abut their work on the structure of DNA 25 years after it was done. Nothing there about what was "meaningful today".
From: William Clark on 14 Sep 2008 12:55 In article <7ucqc45ad7a6ihhvi9i8imgb9boulqricl(a)4ax.com>, Jack Hollis <xsleeper(a)aol.com> wrote: > On Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:23:10 GMT, The Professor <DBID(a)att.net> wrote: > > >You can have 15 Nobel Prizes, and 1 billion in grants, but if you > >don't do anything meaningful today, no one will care about you. Not to say > >you > >won't get invited to give talks and have the underachievers fawn over you, > >but > >people who are really making things happen will only correspond with you if > >you > >are one of them; making things happen. > > Even Albert Einstein ended up that way late in his career. No he did not. He travelled the world and gave invited talks, and he advised the US Government on its nuclear program, when he was not sailing.
From: William Clark on 14 Sep 2008 12:56 In article <G7KdnXe2M7yFrlDVnZ2dnUVZ_uCdnZ2d(a)comcast.com>, BAR <screw(a)you.com> wrote: > The Professor wrote: > > > > BAR wrote: > > > >> > >> Titles are meaningless in academia? > > > > He's right in a way. While it is inappropriate to refer to a Ph.D. as Dr., > > we all > > insist on it. I personally don't like it. However, the status quo in > > academia, at > > the underachiever level, and in most fields, if not all, most people are > > underachievers, is quite oppressive. > > > > One area where he is wrong is science, anyways, only cares about what you > > *DID* > > yesterday. You can have 15 Nobel Prizes, and 1 billion in grants, but if > > you > > don't do anything meaningful today, no one will care about you. Not to say > > you > > won't get invited to give talks and have the underachievers fawn over you, > > but > > people who are really making things happen will only correspond with you if > > you > > are one of them; making things happen. > > I work with many people who have terminal degrees. Smart people who work > their asses off and yet you wouldn't know that they have doctorates. No > title preceding their name on their office or cubicle, nor Ph.D at the > end of their name. Not even on their business card. And frankly, I don't know anyone in my academic sphere who gives a hoot about being called "doctor". Most of us prefer first names.
From: Carbon on 14 Sep 2008 13:01
On Sun, 14 Sep 2008 12:45:55 -0400, William Clark wrote: > In article <G7KdnXG2M7wvrlDVnZ2dnUVZ_uCdnZ2d(a)comcast.com>, > BAR <screw(a)you.com> wrote: >> annika1980 wrote: >> > On Sep 14, 9:44 am, BAR <sc...(a)you.com> wrote: >> > >> >> Do you know what percentage of Naval Officers of any class make >> >> Admiral? >> > >> > In McCain's family it's about 2-out-of-3. McCain was the dumb one. >> >> True, he couldn't keep an plane flying. > > I believe it was five planes, actually. Wow. I didn't know that. He wouldn't have gotten to fly at all if Daddy wasn't an Admiral. No doubt that would have been for the best. |