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It's unclear to me why the professor's opinions on homosexuality or multiculturalism would impede his ability to find a solution to our current predicament in t

It's unclear to me why the professor's opinions on homosexuality or multiculturalism would impede his ability to find a solution to our current predicament in the gulf, which requires a rapid and expert insight. If his other four colleagues selected by the Obama administration were unable to work with him, that would be one thing. There doesn't seem to be any public indication of that. This mostly seems to be a bow from the administration to pressure to enforce political correctness. It would be a shame if the professor's absence unnecessarily prolonged or impeded a rapid solution to the gulf oil geyser. The longer that geyser is allowed to spill, the greater the devastation to marine life and the gulf economy.

mturmon 16y ago
Look at his publications: http://wuphys.wustl.edu/~katz/publist.html http://wuphys.wustl.edu/~katz/publist.html He does not seem to have particular expertise on this problem.
- Perceval 16y ago
  That's a relief. Hopefully his removal will not undermine a solution to the oil geyser. Nevertheless, he was not removed because of his lack of area knowledge. (One wonders why he was selected in the first place, if his work wasn't relevant.) It appears that he was removed because he was holding the 'wrong' socio-political opinions. And that's unsettling.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- billpaetzke 16y ago
  He entered the project based on aptitude and left based on politics. That's why it's unsettling.
  - mturmon 16y ago
    Here's a good summary of the team Steven Chu, himself a Nobelist, appointed: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/mission_impossible_obama_taps_crack_team_of_scient.php http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/mission_im... Note that Katz is called the "What am I doing here" person. And note, the above summary piece was posted in advance of those writings coming out. I think the real issue is, why did Chu ask Katz to join the team in the first place? He's really not got the same track record as the others on the team. Not even close.
    - billpaetzke 16y ago
      The simplest explanation is that Katz was picked because he has a high aptitude for physics problem-solving. Why was he picked over someone else with a better resume? I don't know. If you could prove otherwise, then we could steer this discussion in another direction.
    - lutorm 16y ago
      Sometimes it's good to pick people who are experts in related fields but with no direct knowledge of the issue -- it's a source of unbiased ideas that can be valuable. My impression is that that's the whole idea behind this JASON team, to bring together people from various fields of science who all bring their particular viewpoint to a problem. It's the whole idea behind the word "interdisciplinary"...
      - brg 16y ago
        Exactly. Why was Feynman on the Roger's commission? QED has little to do with rocket science.
      - mturmon 16y ago
        <blockquote> In the days when Sussman was a novice Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6. "What are you doing?", asked Minsky. "I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe." "Why is the net wired randomly?", asked Minsky. "I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play." Minsky shut his eyes. "Why do you close your eyes?", Sussman asked his teacher. "So the room will be empty." At that moment, Sussman was enlightened. </blockquote> My point: not to confuse "no preconceptions" with "not much directly usable knowledge." Look at the resumes of the people on the team. You've got the head of one of the premier research institutions in the nation (Sandia), a national medal of science winner who has consulted about the Kuwait oil well disaster, a robotics engineer, and a petroleum engineer. And an astrophysicist. About Feynman, remember, he was a Nobelist and widely understood, when he was appointed, to be the most brilliant physicist of the latter half of the 20th century. His university (Caltech) runs a NASA facility, JPL, where his sister and a lot of his colleagues worked.
  - crystalis 16y ago
    If you're looking for a balanced outside view, and find that outside view less balanced than initially claimed...
- waterlesscloud 16y ago
  While not relevant to this particular problem, "Detection of Neutron Sources in Cargo Containers" is an interesting title...

mturmon 16y ago

Look at his publications: http://wuphys.wustl.edu/~katz/publist.html http://wuphys.wustl.edu/~katz/publist.html He does not seem to have particular expertise on this problem.

Perceval 16y ago
That's a relief. Hopefully his removal will not undermine a solution to the oil geyser. Nevertheless, he was not removed because of his lack of area knowledge. (One wonders why he was selected in the first place, if his work wasn't relevant.) It appears that he was removed because he was holding the 'wrong' socio-political opinions. And that's unsettling.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
billpaetzke 16y ago
He entered the project based on aptitude and left based on politics. That's why it's unsettling.
- mturmon 16y ago
  Here's a good summary of the team Steven Chu, himself a Nobelist, appointed: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/mission_impossible_obama_taps_crack_team_of_scient.php http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/mission_im... Note that Katz is called the "What am I doing here" person. And note, the above summary piece was posted in advance of those writings coming out. I think the real issue is, why did Chu ask Katz to join the team in the first place? He's really not got the same track record as the others on the team. Not even close.
  - billpaetzke 16y ago
    The simplest explanation is that Katz was picked because he has a high aptitude for physics problem-solving. Why was he picked over someone else with a better resume? I don't know. If you could prove otherwise, then we could steer this discussion in another direction.
  - lutorm 16y ago
    Sometimes it's good to pick people who are experts in related fields but with no direct knowledge of the issue -- it's a source of unbiased ideas that can be valuable. My impression is that that's the whole idea behind this JASON team, to bring together people from various fields of science who all bring their particular viewpoint to a problem. It's the whole idea behind the word "interdisciplinary"...
    - brg 16y ago
      Exactly. Why was Feynman on the Roger's commission? QED has little to do with rocket science.
    - mturmon 16y ago
      <blockquote> In the days when Sussman was a novice Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6. "What are you doing?", asked Minsky. "I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe." "Why is the net wired randomly?", asked Minsky. "I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play." Minsky shut his eyes. "Why do you close your eyes?", Sussman asked his teacher. "So the room will be empty." At that moment, Sussman was enlightened. </blockquote> My point: not to confuse "no preconceptions" with "not much directly usable knowledge." Look at the resumes of the people on the team. You've got the head of one of the premier research institutions in the nation (Sandia), a national medal of science winner who has consulted about the Kuwait oil well disaster, a robotics engineer, and a petroleum engineer. And an astrophysicist. About Feynman, remember, he was a Nobelist and widely understood, when he was appointed, to be the most brilliant physicist of the latter half of the 20th century. His university (Caltech) runs a NASA facility, JPL, where his sister and a lot of his colleagues worked.
- crystalis 16y ago
  If you're looking for a balanced outside view, and find that outside view less balanced than initially claimed...
waterlesscloud 16y ago
While not relevant to this particular problem, "Detection of Neutron Sources in Cargo Containers" is an interesting title...