Thanks.

And I gotta love America, where professorial lectures are accomapnied by the national anthem and a military flag ceremony!

This is a Jefferson Lecture, "the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities." It happens once a year.

Well you don't become the largest democracy in the world by baking pies...

It's not even the largest

By population EU is larger than US

It's not even the oldest, probably Iceland is, its parliament was formed in 930 by Vikings.

How is large good in a democracy? Are the Netherlands worse because they are small?

*samosas

Are you saying the famed American apple pie hasn't been a major contributor to America's success?!

That is because America is not bound together by ethnicity or origin. We are not Americans because our ancestors have always lived in this place. What binds us together as Americans is the flag and patriotism. The flag and patriotism are supposed to transcend political boundaries. I for one think we as Americans need to emphasize what unites us and the flag and national anthem are two such things.

I'd say Constitution and the ideals behind it.

A big part of the "American Dream" is that you don't have to be of particular ethnicity; you have to play by some rules, and you have a chance to make it big.

For better or worse, the flag and anthem are representatives of the ideals and the Constitution. We are pretty nationalistic. That's not necessarily a bad thing, in and of itself.

You are correct. We are heavily inspired my Enlightenment philosophy, especially Hobbesian Social Contract theory. The Constitution is our Social Contract.

What you're describing as patriotism sounds like faith. Your flag is analogous to a cross or a star. Your national anthem sounds like prayers. Countries come across as religions.

I digress. It seems that democracy has been hacked many times over history (thanks OPs for all the links). Honestly, what would be a feasible alternative?

PS: Please do not bring up transparency; more of it won't solve it, we're being socially engineered at large scale.

Maybe uniting with humans in general is also a reasonable option.

That lecture has a 20 minute introduction.

A long meandering of thanking and praising various funding organizations and people. A great example of what's wrong with modern academia.

I see nothing terrible with people wanting to make a big deal out of handing you (tens?) of millions of dollars and getting thanked.

If this was Hollywood, instead of a ceremony, there'd be a "casting couch."

The only real issue is whether you can search for, and publish results that are the opposite of the hand that feeds. And as Google recently proved, that is a problem.

What seems like you're actually annoyed by, is having to wade through comments and content that were never intended for you. (Pro-tip: Skip ahead.) I mean, should we also get mad at PBS saying "this program was brought to you by the X, Y, Z, and Viewers Like You?"?

Is the issue one of "length" or "content?" Because as I've shown, PBS does the same content and nobody complains. And if it's length, yeah, it's annoying, but we're the most spoiled people in the history of the human race if we can't skip some video being beamed across the entire planet after previously being recorded on trillions of dollars of research, billions of dollars of industry, and tens of thousands of smart people all working together in harmony to bring us a video... that could have been clipped a little in the beginning.

Academics would love it if they didn't have to do that. Society's undervaluation of academic research has led to this situation.

This is a Jefferson Lecture, "the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities." It happens once a year.

That’s nothing.

When I was an intern acting as an AV monkey we ran into all sorts of crazy stuff.

Sucking up to people who give you money is an art form present in all forms of business.

They should just put up sponsor banners like sports do. I almost reflexively fast forward 10 minutes now when I watch a lecture because it seems they always feel that need to give a long intro speech.

They could adorn their jackets with sponsor logos and change hats frequently. It'd be like automobile racing!

It might actually get more attention that way. The scientist could show up and do doughnuts in the parking lot, squirt champagne on the crowd, and get a trophy. I'd watch the hell out of that.

Really?

text to speech!! ^^