CERN cuts ties with 'sexist' scientist Alessandro Strumia

Re:CERN cuts ties with 'sexist' scientist Alessandro Strumia by hn_throwaway_99 on Saturday March 09, 2019 @04:19PM (#19348544)

Thanks for posting this. I remember in great detail what happened when Summers was essentially sacked from Harvard, and I thought it did a great disservice to the institution. He was presenting the mere idea, at an academic conference, that innate differences in gender could account for some of the difference in academic achievement in various fields is something that should be studied, and he was pilloried for it. God forbid someone suggest a topic be studied at Harvard. There was definitely an undercurrent that he was really fired for other reasons (the faculty basically didn't like him), but even then using his comments as a pretext for getting rid of him is even worse.

All that said, discussing controversial, emotional topics requires the utmost care. Showing a cartoon of any type relating to this topic shows extremely poor judgement.

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Re:CERN cuts ties with 'sexist' scientist Alessandro Strumia by jessaustin on Monday March 11, 2019 @02:21PM (#19361367)

While he was president at Harvard, Summers had a fairly obnoxious demeanor. Maybe that is his demeanor in all situations, and he has had a lot of personal success, but it was ill-suited to that particular job. The president is supposed to schmooze donors and not piss anyone off. That's it. Summers pissed someone off on at least a weekly basis. By the time he made these impolitic remarks, there was a long line of pitchfork-bearing villagers. All it took was one person to complain about him in unimpeachable fashion, and the Fellows started hearing about how terrible he was all the time. One of the Fellows resigned because Larry hadn't resigned quickly enough! In exchange for a loan forgiveness, the rest of the Corporation convinced him it was time.

Also he made a number of errors as president, e.g. the Shleifer thing and the unfortunate changes made by his people at HMC.

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[dead]

Re:CERN cuts ties with 'sexist' scientist Alessandro Strumia by dang on Saturday March 09, 2019 @05:18PM (#19348864)

Could you please not post in the flamewar style to HN, like you did here and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19185203? That's exactly what we're struggling, collectively and slowly, to move beyond. The site guidelines explain: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

For an example of a comment on a divisive topic that stays within the guidelines, I'd say the one you replied to is pretty good.

Besides the guidelines, you might also find these links helpful for getting the spirit of this site:

https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html

http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html

http://www.paulgraham.com/trolls.html

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Re:CERN cuts ties with 'sexist' scientist Alessandro Strumia by _red on Saturday March 09, 2019 @04:51PM (#19348729)

As an aside. Are you posting via a throwaway because: (a) You worry about HN attacking you with downvotes, or (b) You have a somewhat publicly identifiable username and worry this type of wrongthink could be punished by the modern-stasi movement?

(my money is on B).

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Re:CERN cuts ties with 'sexist' scientist Alessandro Strumia by dang on Saturday March 09, 2019 @05:17PM (#19348856)

Some people have a main account with "throwaway" in the name. Perhaps they just like oxymorons? And many throwaway accounts are not eponymous. You have to look at the account history, not the name, to tell the difference.

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Re:CERN cuts ties with 'sexist' scientist Alessandro Strumia by throwawaymath on Saturday March 09, 2019 @05:25PM (#19348907)

Bingo. Case in point, this is my "main" account :)

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