22 ms·

Harvard professor placed on leave after report details his connection to Epstein

33 points by AndrewBissell 7y ago

ashtonkem 7y ago
In situations like these, there is a very hard line to draw. Some of Epstein’s associates actively participated in or facilitated his crimes, if they can be unambiguously identified they have to be fired right now, and possibly prosecuted. But a huge number of his associates should have known, but chose to avoid learning more and remained silent. What do we do with these people? They deserve some level of social opprobrium, no doubt, but should they be fired? And that’s not even digging into how difficult it is to distinguish the former from the latter.
- finnthehuman 7y ago
  >participated in or facilitated his crimes >fired right now, and possibly prosecuted. I think you've got that backwards there chief. The criminal justice system is what addresses crimes. Firing someone is for when they're not helping your business make money.
  - ashtonkem 7y ago
    If I found out that someone in my company was assisting Epstein, they’d exit the building fast enough to generate a shock cone. That kind of negative publicity is not helpful to company morale or making money.
  - spaceprison 7y ago
    More and more it seems like the corporation/organization is taking the conceptual role of the state in the USA.
RedComet 7y ago
Who? You mean the guy that ran that pedo blackmail ring for the mossad, with ties to the rich and powerful of America? Forgot all about him.
- AndrewBissell 7y ago
  While there are many signs it was involved, I find it unhelpful to finger only the Mossad when it comes to state involvement with Epstein's network. There are also plenty of connections to the CIA (Donald Barr, Leslie Wexner, etc) and American intelligence would not have just allowed it to happen without signing off in some way.
  - RedComet 7y ago
    I must admit, I'm a little confused. Two highly connected and wealthy jews does not seem like a good case to illustrate it not being a mossad operation. And as far as American intelligence... I'm sure there are more than a few caught in the lollita express net. And worse.
    - AndrewBissell 7y ago
      You're dreaming if you think there's more than a hair's breadth of daylight between the CIA & Mossad, or that they don't act as essentially a single unit when it comes to stuff like this.
      - ikeyany 7y ago
        I would imagine the two groups share with and spy on each other so much, to differ only in name and locale.
gautamcgoel 7y ago
HN readers may be interested to know that Martin Nowak was involved in a huge controversy in evolutionary theory a few years ago. Led to some quite heated debate as I recall. This link provides some background: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/03/researchers-challenge-e-o-wilson-over-evolutionary-theory https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/03/researchers-challeng...
- rurban 7y ago
  This was not his only major accomplishment. His biggest was the abolishment of the prisoners dilemma philosophy, which dominated the right wing politics those times.
  - gowld 7y ago
    Your strange wording turned people off. Nowak is a major figure in Prisoners Dilemma science: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma#cite_ref-Hilbe2013_9-1 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma#cite_re...
- gowld 7y ago
  The "huge controversy" was academia's version of what happens every day on Reddit and HN: a highly technical theoretical disagreement buried in a flamewar fueled by sparring bruised egos, and a media that only highlights the most antagonistic voices.
rurban 7y ago
Guess this will cost him his Nobel now.
- gowld 7y ago
  "His" potential future Nobel, maybe.
econcon 7y ago
Once you've all money and reputation, what's left to acquire than sex (which is what has ensured our survival for forever now, it's our instinct) So these men used their power and acted on their primitive instinct forgetting everything about society.
gowld 7y ago
Where did this clickbait headline come from? The actual headline is: "FAS Places Prof. Nowak On Leave After Report Finds Epstein Used His Program to Rehabilitate Image" FAS = Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, essentially the undergraduate and graduate teaching institution part of Harvard, excluding the professional schools like Law, Divinity, and Dentistry.

33 points by AndrewBissell 7y ago

In situations like these, there is a very hard line to draw. Some of Epstein’s associates actively participated in or facilitated his crimes, if they can be unambiguously identified they have to be fired right now, and possibly prosecuted. But a huge number of his associates should have known, but chose to avoid learning more and remained silent. What do we do with these people? They deserve some level of social opprobrium, no doubt, but should they be fired? And that’s not even digging into how difficult it is to distinguish the former from the latter.

finnthehuman 7y ago
>participated in or facilitated his crimes >fired right now, and possibly prosecuted. I think you've got that backwards there chief. The criminal justice system is what addresses crimes. Firing someone is for when they're not helping your business make money.
- ashtonkem 7y ago
  If I found out that someone in my company was assisting Epstein, they’d exit the building fast enough to generate a shock cone. That kind of negative publicity is not helpful to company morale or making money.
- spaceprison 7y ago
  More and more it seems like the corporation/organization is taking the conceptual role of the state in the USA.

RedComet 7y ago

Who? You mean the guy that ran that pedo blackmail ring for the mossad, with ties to the rich and powerful of America? Forgot all about him.

AndrewBissell 7y ago
While there are many signs it was involved, I find it unhelpful to finger only the Mossad when it comes to state involvement with Epstein's network. There are also plenty of connections to the CIA (Donald Barr, Leslie Wexner, etc) and American intelligence would not have just allowed it to happen without signing off in some way.
- RedComet 7y ago
  I must admit, I'm a little confused. Two highly connected and wealthy jews does not seem like a good case to illustrate it not being a mossad operation. And as far as American intelligence... I'm sure there are more than a few caught in the lollita express net. And worse.
  - AndrewBissell 7y ago
    You're dreaming if you think there's more than a hair's breadth of daylight between the CIA & Mossad, or that they don't act as essentially a single unit when it comes to stuff like this.
    - ikeyany 7y ago
      I would imagine the two groups share with and spy on each other so much, to differ only in name and locale.

gautamcgoel 7y ago

HN readers may be interested to know that Martin Nowak was involved in a huge controversy in evolutionary theory a few years ago. Led to some quite heated debate as I recall. This link provides some background: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/03/researchers-challenge-e-o-wilson-over-evolutionary-theory https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/03/researchers-challeng...

rurban 7y ago
This was not his only major accomplishment. His biggest was the abolishment of the prisoners dilemma philosophy, which dominated the right wing politics those times.
- gowld 7y ago
  Your strange wording turned people off. Nowak is a major figure in Prisoners Dilemma science: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma#cite_ref-Hilbe2013_9-1 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma#cite_re...
gowld 7y ago
The "huge controversy" was academia's version of what happens every day on Reddit and HN: a highly technical theoretical disagreement buried in a flamewar fueled by sparring bruised egos, and a media that only highlights the most antagonistic voices.

rurban 7y ago

Guess this will cost him his Nobel now.

gowld 7y ago
"His" potential future Nobel, maybe.

econcon 7y ago

Once you've all money and reputation, what's left to acquire than sex (which is what has ensured our survival for forever now, it's our instinct) So these men used their power and acted on their primitive instinct forgetting everything about society.

gowld 7y ago

Where did this clickbait headline come from? The actual headline is: "FAS Places Prof. Nowak On Leave After Report Finds Epstein Used His Program to Rehabilitate Image" FAS = Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, essentially the undergraduate and graduate teaching institution part of Harvard, excluding the professional schools like Law, Divinity, and Dentistry.