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MIT Removes Online Physics Lectures and Courses By Walter Lewin
jIyajbe writes MIT is indefinitely removing retired physics faculty member Walter Lewin's online lectures from MIT OpenCourseWare and online MITx courses from edX, the online learning platform co-founded by MIT, following a determination that Dr. Lewin engaged in online sexual harassment in violation of MIT policies. For an example of Lewin's colorful style, see this YouTube video. MIT has also revoked Lewin's title as professor emeritus, after the school determined that he "had sexually harassed at least one student online."
What does the professor's "on-line harassment" have to do with the quality and / or value of his lectures?
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
The only thing removing these lectures does is make it harder for others to learn physics without attending school in person.
I would argue removing the videos does far more harm than he ever did, when you consider there aggregate effect on humanity.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sexual Harassment shouldn't cost us knowledge. It's disgusting that we're loosing the benefits of this amazing pedagogue simply because someone was offended by something he said to someone online.
This is total bullshit.
I tried to link to a lecture that explains which law of physics forces sexual harassment to retroactively make past lectures also sexist and offensive but they took that one down too. Oh well.
This seems like a harsh knee-jerk reaction, ostensibly to protect the public image of MIT. Taking down this content, stripping someone of a title -- removing a man's body of legitimate work that benefits the greater masses is a ridiculously absurd measure. What does MIT think they will gain from this, other than saving face.
And he allegedly harassed someone online -- that's all I've heard. Maybe he had a nip before bed and was just a little frustrated, we have no context -- who cares? Lots of people say a lot of things online that are far worse.
Give us all, and this professor, a friggen break MIT.
Nothing, but the institute wants to sever all ties. I do hope that they are replaced with courses of similar quality, but it is perfectly understandable that they want to distance themselves from him.
After all, the transistor was invented by William Shockley, a proponent of Eugenics.
With all the focus on Title IX, and no doubt uncertainty around just what the law might require, or how it would be interpreted, relative to online classes MIT may have chosen the safest possible path to avoid problems. In the end, while the ma weigh the impact of removing the material on learning, they will act to protect the institution.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Maybe they should stop publishing works about Martin Heidegger while they're at, I understand he was a Nazi sympathizer which seems like a pretty terrible thing to be. http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/... http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/... http://mitpress.mit.edu/search...
If we let "S" equal the benefit to society of these lectures and let "D" equal the damage done to the victim(s) by this harassment: then, reasonably, only if D > S should the videos be taken down.
Is there any argument that the harm to society of leaving the videos up would be greater than the harm of taking them down?
How does taking them down in any way help the victim(s)?
A single, small event involving individuals affecting the knowledge of countless others - something doesn't seem right here.
As a MIT grad it mystifies me sometimes. A cyncial point of view might say "follow the money" and perhaps there is a 7-figure lawsuit in the background. MIT ignored a cluster of alcohol-related deaths and suicides, then paid a $6M settlement to one family. They should have reacted stronger to when the DA threw the book at Aaron Schwartz with an order-of-magnitude larger threatened penalty than average hacker case.
Would they have retracted these articles had he murdered someone? I bet not.
When did sexual harassments become worse than murder? This pc bullshit is way out of hand.
The Sex Life of an Electron
by Walter Lewin
One night when his charge was pretty high, Mirco-Farad decided to seek
out a cute little coil to help his discharge.
He picked up Milli-Amp and took her for a ride in his Megacycle. They
rode across the Wheatstone Bridge and stopped by a Magnetic field with
flowing currents and frolicked in the sine waves.
Micro-Farad, attracted by Milli-Amp's characteristic curves, soon had
her fully charged and proceeded to excite her resistance to a minumum.
He gently laid her at ground potential, raised her frequency, and
lowered her reluctance.
With a quick arc, he pulled out his high voltage probe and inserted it
in her socket, connecting them in parallel. He slowly began short
circuiting her resisitance shut while quickly raising her thermal
conductance level to mill-spec. Fully excited, Milli-Amp mumbled
"OHM...OHM...OHM!"
With his tube operating well into class C, and her field vibrating
with his currently flow, a corona formed which instantly caused her
shunt to overheat just at the point when Micro-Farad rapidly
discharged and drained off every electron into her grid.
They fluxed all night trying various connectors and sockets until his
magnet had a soft core and lost all of its field strength.
After wards, Milli-Amp tried self-induction and damaged her solenoids,
and, with his battery fully discharged, Micro-Farad was unable to
excite his field. Not ready to be quiescent, they spent the rest of
the evening reversing polarity and blowing each other's fuses.
So now we've become so extreme that the Universities that were guardians of free thinking have become the thought police and tools for censorship. Aiding vengeance of the political elite (corporations being some of the biggest but that's another topic) upon students it should be defending... I'm specifically thinking of Aaron Swartz where MIT was not an innocent party. Sounds far more governmental than like how a University should function, doesn't it??
I don't care if he was a rapist or serial killer! Where is the philosophy department when you need it?? (The only practical thing they are good for is defending freedom; aside from teaching.) Lets throw out everything NASA ever did under Wernher von Braun because he was a Nazi! If you only forbid work done during the "crime" then you have to throw out all the rocketry work he did for Germany and that kind of thinking would have had him completely passed over for working for NASA at all (because they'd not know his credentials since that info would have gone down the memory hole.)
People now are so fragile they can't even hear unpleasant news. I've been in hostile environments and was severely bullied so naturally most the stuff I see people complain about looks like pathetic wimps wanting attention as victims... appealing to the self righteous egotism of others looking to compensate / cover for their own hypocrisy which they are unable to face (because that again would be unpleasant... no wonder people want drugs over actual therapy!)
Being gay was a crime and to most people it's still a horrible sin against god. That didn't stop computer science; but today one has to wonder if those attitudes prevailed today how much we'd be set back?
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I wish I had more professors like this guy. Just watching him demonstrate physics and talk about how wonderful it is to inspire a student, and how he knows most will forget the thousands of physics equations they learn, but that is not the important part.
We need more professors like Lewin. May this video inspire the teacher in you to appreciate inspiration. And to the physics teachers out there that cannot allow an outside thought or a moment of tactile examples, shame on you!
Of course, people like him do not fit the mold and are bound to be kicked around by society. I am very curious what these alleged emails really contained. Was it merely something not quite PC enough for today's crowd, or was it something truly grotesque and thus damning and beyond recovery?
What's wrong with hoarding? Duplication is what protects against censorious assholes.
I don't think MIT really gets what their lectures mean to the world. They aren't about a Puritan representation of the institution itself. They are about offering knowledge to the world, including poverty stricken areas whose culture may not yet have evolved to look down upon catcalling.
We should learn what we need to know about issues, before we decide what we need to feel about them.
C'mon, her workout videos weren't that offensive!
Freedom to fear. Freedom from thought. Freedom to kill.
I guess the War on Terror really is about freedom!
We should stop using transistors and purge our textbooks of all knowledge of DNA because Shockley and Watson are racists.
Read the fine article that explains that the gentleman specifically harassed a student who was using his lectures, through the e-learning platform provided by MIT. If part of platform is to be able to interact with the author of the content, this puts university in an awkward position and removal of materials seems reasonable.
I have about the first half of the 801 course (Newtonian mechanics) in 720p. I downloaded the videos so I could watch them during my commute when I was offline. The other videos must be on someone's hard drive somewhere, right? I think it's time for some sneaky guerrilla distributed archiving!
The alleged victim was a female student in one of his online courses (and she claims he did the same to other students), so he could possibly have held a positifof power over her. Completion of the courses results in a certificate but zero academic credit, and MIT has bragged that thousands enroll in the courses, so the amount of leverage he could have had over her is questionable. But if he was using this MIT program at all to try to pick up women then that is wrong, and it makes sense for MIT to put a stop to it. We don't know exactly what he was doing unless we can read the correspondence in question.
Most headlines make it sound like he "harassed" strangers online. No, it's a professor allegedly harassing one of his students, and it's not all that special if he did it "over the internet."
The alleged victim was a female student in one of his online courses (and she claims he did the same to other students), so he could possibly have held a positifof power over her. Completion of the courses results in a certificate but zero academic credit, and MIT has bragged that thousands enroll in the courses, so the amount of leverage he could have had over her is questionable. But if he was using this MIT program at all to try to pick up women then that is wrong, and it makes sense for MIT to put a stop to it. We don't know exactly what he was doing unless we can read the correspondence in question. Most headlines make it sound like he "harassed" strangers online. No, it's a professor allegedly harassing one of his students, and it's not all that special if he did it "over the internet."
I've been doing this for years. I started when youtube started going nuts with the takedowns.
These days I pretty much grab any video/image/audio clip/document/etc that I think I might some day want to watch again, because more and more there is a good chance it'll be gone when I want to.
What ever happened to being innocent until proven guilty? Why with claims of sexual harassment and misogyny do Constitutional protections no longer exist? In fairness, it's been happening with racism as well but those charges don't tend to ruin as many people as sexism claims (though the consequences are more dire for the victims).
Why won't the assholes that keep propping up this unconstitutional action bring up facts like the conclusion of the Duke LaCrosse team scandal? You know, the scandal that ruined the lives of more than a dozen people based on a completely false accusations. Not only was the accuser never charged with any crime from the false accusation, but the same person goes on to commit arson, attempted murder, and finally murder. Even today morons quote the Duke LaCrosse team as an example of misogyny.
The problems are not just in the US either. A Canadian University last month suspended an entire Hokey team and prevented graduations based on a top secret internal investigation (no police). Institutionalized vigilantism. There was in reality an allegation that 2 players were involved in sexual harassment, and the rest of the team was suspended for not speaking out against those two players. So in Canada not only is every allegation a criminal event, but if you want to wait for proof for the allegations you are also a criminal.
Welcome to your New World Order! Remain silent, it can only continue to get better.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
What does the professor's "on-line harassment" have to do with the quality and / or value of his lectures?
The message being sent is: "If you sexually harass our students you're done, you're gone, and we don't give a damn whether you are the star quarterback, the uber geek or the processor emeritus."
Not that there isn't something particularly gross about the elderly emeritus professor using his academic position and credentials to gain sexual leverage over a student forty or more years his junior,
Obligatory:
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
In my experience, the most vocal student complainers are the ones that are failing courses and not doing homework.
"He's so difficult, he makes us show our work."
That kind of thing. And they are, always, the most sensitive to teacher comments.
So combine the three together: A PC-culture with zero-tolerance policies, a wild out-there-awesome "round peg in a square hole" professor, and a lazy complaining student.
Getting back to your point, "enough for the student to formally complain" doesn't mean shit unless a large amount of students are complaining that he isn't doing his job.
Nobody should be able to read history., ever! Or will you change tune and claim that it's okay to teach what _YOU_ want to be taught? We of course have to add the qualifier that it must be taught "how" you want it taught as well, because you know...teaching algebra story problems with a skirt in them is okay, but teaching the same problem with a hardhat is from the "patriarchy".
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Nothing. The Institute apparently thinks he's a scumbag and doesn't want to be associated with him, which is their right.
Prove it! I spent over 30 minutes searching for any actual evidence of sexual harassment and found nothing but conjecture. So you have false accusations that result in life ruining decisions (Duke LaCrosse) and real issues that Universities cover up (Penn. State). Why would they treat this guy like the LaCrosse team? Oh, it suits an agenda... Connect the dots man, it's really not that hard.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Apparently they're good lectures.
The only thing removing these lectures does is make it harder for others to learn physics without attending school in person.
MIT employs over a thousand faculty members of all ranks.
Over and above that, MIT has about 600 active senior lecturers, lecturers, and professors emeriti. MIT Facts
Lewin is not irreplaceable.
Which is a damn good thing because he is. after all, 78 years old,
MIT makes it easy to study physics outside the classroom, if learning matters more than academic credits.
MIT Open Courseware Physics
All of the arguments here about "suppressing knowledge" are incredibly off base. No knowledge is being suppressed, just a particular presentation of that knowledge is being dis-associated with a particular school. This is not research, these are lectures on established academic topics. The man in in question is free to post his lectures elsewhere, and for its part I am sure that MIT has or will soon have alternate lectures available on the same topics. Whether the allegations are founded or not is certainly a question (one which I am sure is answerable), but let's not pretend this is some sort of massive crime against knowledge akin to a book-burning. MIT is exercising their right not to be associated with this individual based on their view of his character. That's all.
The accusation is the evidence.
Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
He did something bad, so now they stop him from doing good.
Imagine the drama if people had to make moral judgements themselves on the nature of a person... better to make it obvious and help them "decide" by preventing the "bad man" from being good.
Have to wonder about societies logic sometimes.
Seriously, do you think his behavior is appropriate and warrants continued tenure at MIT?
their methodology was utter shite.
Only thing Nazis experiments on Jews in death camps could be good for is using them as an example of CONFIRMATION BIAS.
And possibly for weeding out racists and holocaust deniers from the academia.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Maybe we should cheer him on. :-)
Makes perfect sense, according to the public.
I loved Rolf Harris, I grew up in the 60's watching his show on B&W TV, now he turns my stomach. I've laughed my arse off to Bill Cosby for 40yrs but now I look at him with suspicion. I came across the video in TFA earlier this year and reposted it to FB, now I want to unpost it. These people have made fools of all who applauded them in the past, they were "grooming" everyone, not just the immediate victim. It's human nature to want violent revenge, it's much more civilised to simply have nothing to do with them. So as a grandfather to 3 girls, I say publically ostracising sexual predators for their crimes makes perfect sense, they know the social and legal punishment, they know they will be a target in jail, but they still choose to do it.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Got evidence for that accusation?
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Memo to Stanford, "hire Walter Lewin before some ass clown at another university does!"
Time to toss Richard Wagner's works seeing as how he was a racist.
Richard Wagner is dead.
Lewin is alive and at 78 years old was caught sexually harassing an MIT online student 50 years his junior. In the old days a man like this would have been quietly put out to pasture before his senility caused his school any further embarrassment.
Or ... we could toss the people who makes decisions like this out on their ass, which is a much better idea.
If you are not a sexually responsible adult you have no business being on the physical or online campus. It doesn't matter if you are the frat boy, the jerk jock, the twenty year uber-geek or the eighty year old professor emeritus.
It also sends a really clear message: "This behavior will not be tolerated."
The video has nothing to do with his behavior. Having it online benefitted others far more than himself.
The message it does send is that they are so afraid of controversy they are willing to hurt anyone rather than endure it.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It is now required to refer in all online textbooks to the structure of DNA as a "single helix" since one of the two discoverers of the double helix has been revealed to be a moronic racist in his spare time.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
the one who lodged the complaint never stood to appreciate any of the subject matter, never stood to contribute back to the field in any substantive way, though they succeeded in preventing others who might've done those things.
Bukowski said it. I believe it. That settles it.
Complete with female infant mutilation as illegal, yet male infant sexual mutilation is very standard. .. what? .. you psycho-cunts.
Want your sexual life twisted for
FU - if you do feel that way to anyone else, including your children
Mutilate yourself if you want, but leave the rest of us alone.
That's nice. The commenters are standing up that f- s-, and there are some others there presenting themselves as targets.
Bukowski said it. I believe it. That settles it.
At will employment laws vary from State to State, and in some States they don't exist at all. The professor may or not have a contract that negates this theory. Further, even with the "right to work" laws Companies can not stomp on a persons rights under the Law of the Land (US Constitution) without repercussion.
Will you next quote me some Marx or perhaps some Tolkien trying to prove something you can't prove?
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
1 persons allegation is not "annoying customers", and those allegations thus far appear to be absolutely baseless. Oh I know, the Duke LaCrosse team deserved to have their lives ruined because after all.. they are men right?
I don't really see much benefit in taking this guy's work off-line, but the deal with being a professor is that your living is paid for by the checks of some young woman's father.
Lets say you are a professor and a girl winks at you and says "can I have a good grade" and you say "No". Now you are charged with an allegation of sexual harassment and terminated. Seems fair right? I do notice that you are posting anonymously, I wonder why that is? Can I have your name so I can track down your employer and issue a false allegation for sexual harassment against you? I mean, if an allegation is all it takes to get someone terminated today what do you fear?
And this is not an attempt to just terminate someone, it's an attempt to erase them from the history of the University.
Put a slightly different way, anyone charged with any crime should _ALWAYS_ be able to defend themselves in a public trial before being lynched by public opinion. Sure, I'm an idealist but that is one of the many ideals which were critical in founding our great country.
If YOU don't believe that we should function that way, I'll invite you to go live in a place like North Korea where they have no such rules and people can be punished for an allegation. I'm guessing however that you are content to be here, and just open the shoe never drops on your foot.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
So basically unless you personally conduct an investigation to satisfy your own doubts you won't accept anyone else's conclusions? Fortunately, you are not the universal judge and life doesn't work that way.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Are you really that daft? Where did I say I had to conduct the investigation? I said I needed to see the results of the investigation to make a determination. The fact that you can't differentiate between those two things is more than bothersome. You are either a deluded psychopath who should not post again on a public site until psychological treatment and medical staff approves your access, or a very pathetic shill (pathetic meaning bad at your job).
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
It likely had more to do with MIT revoking his professor title, rather than the other way around. It makes more sense to say that MIT revoked his professor title, and then took down his lectures. You know, because he is no longer a professor at MIT anymore...
Except for your overall impotence as a human being.
So...we good?
Is the nature of the professor's harassment going to be known? Or is it a secret, like Gitmo detainee's charges
Is the woman content with him being reomved and stripped of emeritus status? Or is more punishment warranted? That's a pretty big deal for a retired professor, but should he be arrested and imprisoned?
I think that the first part is especially important, because if we cannot ever be told of the nature of the harassment, prudent professers will entertain seriously the notion that femals must be avoided at all costs. Sounds draconian, but I saw that exact situation develop when harassment definition or accusations are vague, and just an accusation is enough to deerail someone's career. In our local case, men chose their careers, over association with females at work.
note, before the misogynist card is pulled out, on me I pretty well accept that something happened, as per MIT's investigation notes. ANd most likely the removal was warranted. Just that if the guy was demanding sex for grades, or merely made a dongle joke, it would be good to know.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Is it really that hard to grasp the concept of evidence? No evidence has been provided, so there is good reason to be skeptical. Such institutions are scared to death when it comes to situations like this. If they can sacrifice someone to prevent any troubles, they might do so just to be on the safe side.
Seriously, do you think his behavior is appropriate and warrants continued tenure at MIT?
Yes, probably. Do you have any specific evidence to the contrary or is the accuser always right in sexual harrassment disputes in your view? Or rather in any dispute between a male and female is the female always automatically correct and the male is presumed guilty by default?
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Killing the messenger:
It still applies just not in a clear way that fits with the name of the fallacy. The body of work has nothing to do with the author's unrelated actions; it would be a red herring except it has an irrelevant connection (the messenger; which is why it's not called, "kill the by-stander." In this case the messenger is his body of work and the message is his personal behavior.)
Parent disagrees with Physics?
Parent acts as if MIT is removing pornography videos. The disagreement is with the professors words online that are NOT in the educational materials taken down. Written materials only have his NAME, audio has his VOICE, videos have his IMAGE. Want to remove an ugly statue? Put his name on it!
I don't want to associate with MIT at all because they had a former Professor who harassed some people. Yeah, nobody wants anything to do with MIT...
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+1 insightful
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-