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James Watson's Nobel Prize Goes On Auction This Week
HughPickens.com writes: Nicholas St. Fleur reports at The Atlantic that James Watson, the famed molecular biologist and co-discoverer of DNA, is putting his Nobel Prize up for auction on Thursday. He's the first Nobel laureate in history to do so. In 2007, Watson, best known for his work deciphering the DNA double helix alongside Francis Crick in 1953, made an incendiary remark regarding the intelligence of black people that lost him the admiration of the scientific community. It made him, in his own words, an "unperson." That year, The Sunday Times quoted Watson as saying that he felt "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really." Watson has a history of making racist and sexist declarations, according to Time. At a science conference in 2012, Watson said of women in science, "I think having all these women around makes it more fun for the men but they're probably less effective." To many scientists his gravest offense was not crediting Rosalind Franklin with helping him deduce the structure of DNA.
Watson is selling his prized medallion because he has no income outside of academia, even though for years he had served on many corporate boards. The gold medal is expected to bring in between $2.5 million and $3.5 million when it goes to auction. Watson says that he will use the money to purchase art and make donations to institutions that have supported him, such as the University of Chicago. He adds that the auction will also offer him the chance to "re-enter public life." "I've had a unique life that's allowed me to do things. I was set back. It was stupid on my part," says Watson. "All you can do is nothing, except hope that people actually know what you are."
Watson is selling his prized medallion because he has no income outside of academia, even though for years he had served on many corporate boards. The gold medal is expected to bring in between $2.5 million and $3.5 million when it goes to auction. Watson says that he will use the money to purchase art and make donations to institutions that have supported him, such as the University of Chicago. He adds that the auction will also offer him the chance to "re-enter public life." "I've had a unique life that's allowed me to do things. I was set back. It was stupid on my part," says Watson. "All you can do is nothing, except hope that people actually know what you are."
This man is a victem of the politically moderated speech problem. He stated his beliefs and was then considered anti-female and anti black. In reference to black, native people I do not find it outlandish to suppose that there is little demand for esoteric reasoning as they are busy enough trying to eek out a living. I further do not think it is offensive to state that peoples' minds and social customs adapt to what is needful to survive. Therefore I would expect it to be very rare for native people, not exposed heavily to western life, may not have activated abilities in the mind that are more common in urban cultures. That is not looking down on anyone. People simply adapt their minds to their needs. As far as the remarks about female scientists in the workplace he is on target. The men probably enjoyed the company and therefore the men may not be as concentrated on their work. It does not attack the ability of women at all. It points to the difficulty in mixing sexes in some jobs. The notion of non-offensive speech is killing free speech.
And just to reinforce that this douche is working on imagined extrapolations, if it's so damn heritable, how the fuck do racial IQ disparities shrink almost a whole standard deviation in one generation?
Why did anyone mod ShanghailBill up?
Is this some autistic need to categorize?
What is fucking wrong with slashdotters?
No, sorry, I don't speak racist-piece-of-shit.
You gotta be a decent human being before your barbs sting.
Oh no. Swearing.
You're right, he might be an ignorant bigot perpetuating some of the dumbest shit imaginable, but he didn't fucking swear.
Oh, I'm sorry. Is my tone offending you?
I have a lot of growing up to do, huh?
Fuck off.
Oh, heaven help me, a racist piece of shit insulted me.
However will I recover from the stinging opinions of awful people?
Seriously, racists are almost not people. Why should I care what ignorant fuckers think of me?
Hey, everyone, look! A college dropout is calling a Nobel Prize winner an "idiot" because the college dropout is good at ignoring evidence that doesn't agree with his worldviews!
Shut the fuck up, i kan reed. You're probably the dumbest motherfucker on Slashdot. You're worse for Slashdot than Dice or Beta ever were.
And this, is how Illiberals react, when a thoughtcriminal challenges their — unsubstantiated — beliefs... This perfect example of Illiberal approach to arguing makes a good conversational piece and is now available printed on archive-quality paper.
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In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
And again, you ignorant piece of trash, who ignores refutations and repeats your racist beliefs:
If the difference is so damn heritable, how did the discrepancy shrink by 7 to 14 points in one generation?
Give one goddamn reason.
Yeah, but there's this threshold where you're wrong enough, and shitty enough, that public hatred for your opinions isn't some chilling effect that's going to supress free speech. He has a right to be wrong, but he has no goddamn right not be hated for it when it's this level of awful.
Oh, unsubstantiated accusations of racism.
I love this.
"Black people are by their nature stupider than whites"
"That's not true and your own damn link undermines you, racist"
"Ha, you called that totally innocent rational person a racist! You must just shout that at everyone."
You know what, fuck it. Here's another post for you racists to mod down.
Not one goddamn person has supported his notion that Africa hasn't had progress.
Multiple people have modded me down for calling him out on his racist bullshit.
One of you ignorant fuckers defend this shit.
I mean, just look at the HDI growths, and keep telling me nothing changed.
There's just nothing to this bullshit. And you guys just eat it the fuck up.
What's wrong with you?
What's wrong with you?