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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (96307)	1/22/2005 9:59:50 AM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 793896

Dr. Lawrence Summers has to go as President of Harvard University. Why? For speculating at a forum that math ability is the reason for so few women in science? Yes. For making such a stupid speculation. There is no science behind that speculation. There is no, none, nothing, nada scientific evidence to support that speculation. As President of Harvard University, you can't go around making speculations about anything without something that may perhaps support your speculation. There is no scientific basis for this speculation. If there is, please provide a link. It is not like you or I talking between us and friends about there being so few "negro" physicists or so few home grown, white basketball players at the professional level. We may "feel like" we know the answers - just as there were German "scientists" who "knew" the social character of individual by measuring the length of thier noses. There is no scientific evidence for any of this stuff - and no one is suppressing this information (if this information existed). What do you think the reason is? The reasons are too far complex. There are far too many variables. But, let my try to explain this in a far more simple example - where there are far fewer variables. Let's talk about white basketball players in the NBA. Most basketball players in the NBA are black. I don't know what the percentages are. But just through visualizing a basketball game in the NBA, it "feels" like that more than 80% of the basketball players are black. Of the remaining 20% or so, most of the white players are from Europe. There are virtually no white basketball superstars born in the USA. Sure we can speculate on that in private. But I don't think it would be wise to go public with our speculation. Sure we can demand that we are able to exercise our right to free speech. But the truth is, we don't know the reasons. There is no science supporting how we may "feel" about the situation. So, the smart thing for us to do is to keep quite - at least not go public with our thoughts. Dr Summers however, is not just an ordinary person. He is President of Harvard University. He can speculate all he wants with his buddies at his local cigar bar. But he can't do this in public as President of Harvard University.

To: LindyBill who wrote (96307)	1/23/2005 9:02:59 AM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 793896

For speculating at a forum that math ability is the reason for so few women in science? If there is no scientific research to back Summers up, then it's pseudoscience to suggest that there might be. And I know you don't approve of pseudoscience. I know for a fact that you object to speculation that industry is the cause of global warming. If, for example, Summers speculated that people vote Republican because they lacked an innate capacity for reasoning, you'd find that offensive, I have no doubt.