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Lab Severs Ties With James Watson, Citing ‘Unsubstantiated and Reckless’ Remarks
New York Times ^ | January 11, 2019 | Amy Harmon

Posted on 01/12/2019 5:23:13 AM PST by reaganaut1

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory revoked the honorary titles held by its longtime leader James D. Watson on Friday, describing as “unsubstantiated and reckless” his recent remarks about genetic differences in intelligence among racial groups.

Dr. Watson, one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century, had apologized after making similar comments to a British newspaper in 2007. At the time, he was forced to retire from his job as chancellor at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, but he has retained his office there, as well as the titles of chancellor emeritus, Oliver R. Grace professor emeritus and honorary trustee. The graduate school of biological sciences at the research center is named for Dr. Watson, and the laboratory held a 90th birthday party for him last spring.

For the past decade the laboratory, like much of the scientific community, has engaged in a delicate balancing act with regard to Dr. Watson: holding him at arm’s length for reinforcing unfounded racial stereotypes, while still honoring him for his contributions to science. Dr. Watson, with Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin, helped discover the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953, and he went on to help to shape the subsequent revolution in molecular biology.

But his recent comments “effectively reverse the written apology and retraction Dr. Watson made in 2007,” and “require the severing of any remaining vestiges of his involvement,” Cold Spring Harbor’s chief executive, Bruce Stillman, and its board of trustees chairwoman, Marilyn Simons, said in a statement.

[...] In the film, Dr. Watson references a view that average I.Q. differences between blacks and whites reflect underlying genetic differences shaped by natural selection.

But leading geneticists say that even modern DNA studies are currently unable to validate such hypotheses about differences between human populations.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bellcurve; helixmakemineadouble; iq; jameswatson; nazi; race
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To: willk

Yes, but on average your IQ would be higher.


81 posted on 01/12/2019 10:28:57 AM PST by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: null and void

What does Dr. Lysenko have to say on this matter?


82 posted on 01/12/2019 10:31:52 AM PST by Vehmgericht
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To: ladyjane

Legacies and big donors always had affirmative action. Where else did the idea come from?


83 posted on 01/12/2019 10:35:39 AM PST by jjotto (Next week, BOOM!, for sure!)
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To: Candor7
Pretty much.
And this is the funny part. Blacks (and I am black) who will object to any talk of superior IQs for Asians, Jews, Whites etc. are usually the first to boast about the superiority of black basketball players and inferiority of white basketball players etc. They fail to see they two sides of the same coin.
Different races have different strengths and weaknesses. Even within the same race, there are significant regional differences. For example, West Africans excel at the sprints in track and field, but totally suck at the long distances. On the other hand, the East Africans dominate the marathons. I am yet to see any West African win any of the major marathons. They are almost always won by the East Africans, primarily Kenyans.
84 posted on 01/12/2019 10:51:45 AM PST by SmokingJoe
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

I have.

I got sick of the freaks and extreamists that were obvious in their agenda.

Whenever I encounter yet another one that speaks in couched language, I know I’ve found yet another one.


85 posted on 01/12/2019 11:14:44 AM PST by VanDeKoik
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To: jjotto

But they don’t fit the definition of affirmative action.

An affirmative action admit is one that has been discriminated against.


86 posted on 01/12/2019 11:41:50 AM PST by ladyjane
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To: reaganaut1

Ping


87 posted on 01/12/2019 11:43:41 AM PST by Lowell1775
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To: ladyjane

You miss the point. Before the government made it a legal category, the common sense definition was ‘being awarded something without regard to whether it was achieved or deserved’.


88 posted on 01/12/2019 11:47:19 AM PST by jjotto (Next week, BOOM!, for sure!)
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To: jjotto

Affirmative Action | Definition of Affirmative Action by Merriam-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/affirmative%20action
Definition of affirmative action. : an active effort to improve the employment or educational opportunities of members of minority groups and women sought to achieve a multicultural staff through affirmative action also : a similar effort to promote the rights or progress of other disadvantaged persons.


89 posted on 01/12/2019 11:57:33 AM PST by ladyjane
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To: Candor7

Link to list of IQ by nation

https://www.worlddata.info/iq-by-country.php


90 posted on 01/12/2019 11:58:47 AM PST by cpdiii ( canecutter, deckhand, roughneck, geologist, pilot, pharmacist THE CONSTITUTION IS WORTH DYING FOR)
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To: ladyjane

That is what is has come to mean legally. No one before the ‘60s would have understood it thus.


91 posted on 01/12/2019 12:02:04 PM PST by jjotto (Next week, BOOM!, for sure!)
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To: ladyjane
Was she Asian or Jewish? LOL

The woman I was dating wasn't...don't know about her classmate.

Seriously, about 30% of the class might be legacy admissions and big donor family admissions.

Yup,I know that that's quite common at the more prestigious schools.But IMO all such admissions represent a form of "affirmative action".I can't say whether her classmate had the same attitude when revealing Harvard's "inner workings".

92 posted on 01/12/2019 12:07:09 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (Mitt Romney: Bringing Massachusetts Values To The Great State Of Utah.)
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To: VanDeKoik

There are blacks who are intellectually superior to the vast majority of white people. Clarence Thomas and Thomas Sowell come to mind.

However, the gap between AVERAGE group scores for whites and blacks, in things like IQ tests, SAT tests, and many other tests of intellectual performance, is well documented.

This becomes very relevant when people declare any statistical difference in outcome between races, to be evidence of discrimination. Except when, as in athletics, it favors minorities.


93 posted on 01/12/2019 1:11:59 PM PST by SauronOfMordor (Socialists want YOUR wealth redistributed, never THEIRS!)
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To: The Pack Knight

Keep in mind that the self selected group of people who CHOOSE to immigrate is not likely to be a random sampling of the people from where they come from.

In some cases, they will be people who could not make it, and desire to sponge off our welfare system. In other cases, they will be people of high ability who want an opportunity to succeed.


94 posted on 01/12/2019 1:17:36 PM PST by SauronOfMordor (Socialists want YOUR wealth redistributed, never THEIRS!)
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To: null and void

An intelligent Westerner, put through Army survival school training, would have a better chance of surviving the Serengeti plains, than a resident of the Serengeti would have in being a successful member of the US middle class, unless he was brought over to play athlete.


95 posted on 01/12/2019 1:25:16 PM PST by SauronOfMordor (Socialists want YOUR wealth redistributed, never THEIRS!)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

If white people are so bad, then why are all the nonwhites going to the white countries?

Why not stay in your own country and fix it up?


96 posted on 01/12/2019 3:44:01 PM PST by Ban Draoi Marbh Draoi ( Gen. 12:3: a warning to all anti-semites.)
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To: SmokingJoe

Different races have different strengths and weaknesses.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thats so true. But the real problem is that these superior aspects and inferior aspects of gene related specificity are not evenly distributed throughout any defined racial group.

Therefore stereotyping any quality in a defined group is a huge mistake made by almost everyone.I am Caucasion. My family will likely never have sickle cell anemia, instead we are likely to have haemachromitosis.

But not all Caucasions have the hemachromitosis gene, just as Black people do not all carry the sickle cell gene. Both are not evenly distributed in those populations. So why stereotype? Its ludicrous. I use these examples to show how ludicrous sterotyping for political correctness really is.

I am from a multi-racial family, my son married inter- racially, and so the topic has been exercised between us.They want to have liberty and freedom.

I am actually quite tired of the stereotyping upon which political correctness itself depends. Why do so many fall for such absolute foolishness? We should simply be kind and love one another , get along civilly as Americans who can be genuinely free.We have so much in common, the pursuit of happiness. With political correctness, stereotyping and dehumanizing each other, as the leftists promote, ruling our society, we can never be free. Has anybody NOTICED THAT?


97 posted on 01/12/2019 3:55:37 PM PST by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism)http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: SmokingJoe

Caucasion = Caucasian

I have the bad spelling gene./s


98 posted on 01/12/2019 4:02:05 PM PST by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism)http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: reaganaut1
I've met Watson and his wife. Delightful people. This is actually a continuation of an issue he first broached in 2007, after which he was fired, shamed, and shunned. Had to sell his Nobel medal to recoup his finances. He used to be a Lefty and gave it up:

In 2007, Watson said, "I turned against the left wing because they don't like genetics, because genetics implies that sometimes in life we fail because we have bad genes. They want all failure in life to be due to the evil system." [Wiki article]

I had him and his wife to myself for all of ten minutes, so it wasn't any long acquaintance, but I will say without fear of contradiction that he doesn't give a rip what people think.

99 posted on 01/12/2019 4:15:36 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: reaganaut1
My final assignment before I retired from the Air Force was as commander of an engineering unit. I and my deputy were the only military in the outfit. All the Engineers and technicians were Civil Service. About a third of the technical people were Blacks. The engineers, black and white, had all graduated from reputable colleges. The technicians had all gone through Air Force technician school or had certificates from community colleges. They were all competent at their jobs. I am sure none of them, black or white, were in any way on the low side of the Bell Curve. I agree this was a very select group, not a random sample of whites and blacks. The main conclusion I draw from my experience is that you have to judge people as individuals. Skin color may tell you something about averages, but it tells you nothing about individuals.
100 posted on 01/12/2019 6:02:49 PM PST by JoeFromSidney (Colonel (Retired) USAF)
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