Caltech students in Hawking's lecture

lizzardfire
Wed, 04 Apr 2007 22:23:20 +0000

“To lizzardfire, I didn’t notice your message #5 when I posted mine #6. Good for you to have such wonderful experience with President Chameau. However, your endorsement to the letter reminded me of Condoleezza Rice. You may not have the intent, but you are murdering Ben Golub’s incentive to stay rational as a scientist should always be. Caltech needs no cheerleaders.”

Biggs, I don’t even understand what you’re saying. Let’s examine what I posted in a rational, scientific manner.

The post was comprised of two sentences. The first sentence was my personal approval of Ben’s letter. I thought it was well written and amusing. The second sentence was an anecdote of mine that exemplified the spirit Ben spoke of. Nothing irrational about either of those…

I really could care less whether you think my “endorsement” sounds like something Condi Rice wrote (is that supposed to be an insult?) but since I don’t really have extensive knowledge of how Condi Rice writes endorsements I guess I can’t really debate it, heh.

As for your second comment, that I was murdering incentive for rationality, I have to ask if you understand the meaning of rational. If you do, then please explain to me what was irrational about my post. In addition, I fail to see how sharing a positive experience constitutes cheerleading–I didn’t say, OH MAN CALTECH IS THE BEST–I just told a true story.

One more thing: I find it a bit ironic that a student who makes a post about the proper way to address individuals politely finds a way to insult an individual three times in response to two short (and unoffensive!) sentences.