Tag Archives: Jeffrey Epstein
Melinda, Bill and Jeffrey (Epstein)
I’m not sure what to make of Bill Gates as he features in the New York Times‘s report on his divorce with Melinda French Gates, although it’s tempting to see hints of that attitude so often on display when the … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds
Tagged Arizona State University, Bill Gates, George Church, Jean-François Gariépy, Jeffrey Epstein, John Brockman, Joi Ito, Lawrence Krauss, Melinda French Gates, MIT, Seth Lloyd
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To read or not a bad man’s book
The Life of Science team uploaded the video of their webinar on July 10, about the construct of the genius in science, on YouTube on July 14. Please watch it if you haven’t already. I had also blogged about it. … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Science
Tagged #MeToo, Enrico Fermi, genius, Geoffrey Marcy, Georges Lemaître, Gita Chadha, Jeffrey Epstein, Lawrence Krauss, Richard Feynman, scientific genius, The Life of Science
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Redeeming art v. redeeming science
Recently, someone shared the cover of a soon to be released book, entitled The Physics of Climate Change, authored by Lawrence M. Krauss and expressed excitement about the book’s impending publication and the prospect of their reading it. I instinctively … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture, Science
Tagged diversity, Enrico Feri, Erik Shapiro, Geoffrey Marcy, Georges Lemaître, Jeffrey Epstein, Lawrence Krauss, passing the trash, Richard Feynman, separate art from artist, separate scholar from scholarship, sexual harassment, social anthropology
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A science for the non-1%
David Michaels, an epidemiologist and a former US assistant secretary of labour for occupational safety and health under Barack Obama, writes in the Boston Review: [Product defence] operations have on their payrolls—or can bring in on a moment’s notice—toxicologists, epidemiologists, … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged 1%, higher education, humanities, ivory tower, Jeffrey Epstein, manufacturing doubt, political participation, publish or perish, reason for state, scientific knowledge, scientific research, scientism, social science
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Necessity and sufficiency
With apologies for recalling horrible people early in the day: I chanced upon this article quoting Lawrence Krauss talking about his friend Jeffrey Epstein from April 2011, and updated in July 2019. Excerpt (emphasis added): Renowned scientists whose research Epstein … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged empiricism, Jeffrey Epstein, Lawrence Krauss, necessity, Neil deGrasse Tyson, scientism, Steven Pinker, sufficiency
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Accumulation then philanthropy
Peter Woit’s review of a new book about Jim Simons, the mathematician and capitalist who set up the Simons Foundation, which funds math and physics research around the world but principally in the West to the tune of $300 million … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged Bill Gates, capital accumulation, capitalism, Donald Trump, income inequality, Jeffrey Epstein, Jim Simons, philanthropy, Simons Foundation, wealth inequality
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Toppling Epstein’s intellectuals network
While there have been no other high-profile exits from the MIT Media Lab after Ethan Zuckerman and J. Nathan Matias submitted their resignations, the lab’s students had been demanding its director Joi Ito to resign over his ties with Epstein. … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged Cesar Hidalgo, Elementary, Evgeny Morozov, Jeffrey Epstein, John Brockman, Joi Ito, Martin Nowak, Marvin Minsky, Max Brockman, Miami Herald, MIT Media Lab, Nicholas Negroponte, Patrick McCray, Peter Aldhous, Robert Trivers, Ronan Farrow, Xeni Jardan
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Another exit from MIT Media Lab
J. Nathan Matias, a newly minted faculty member at Cornell University and a visiting scholar at the MIT Media Lab, has announced that he will cut all ties with the latter at the end of the academic year over the … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged #MeToo, Boston Globe, Center for Civic Media, CivilServant, Ethan Zuckerman, George Church, Jeffrey Epstein, Joi Ito, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Media Lab Disobedience Prize, MIT Media Lab
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Joi Ito’s nerd tunnel vision
On August 15, Joi Ito, the director of MIT’s famed Media Lab, published a post apologising for fraternising with Jeffrey Epstein. His wording mimics a bit of George Church’s as well, in that Ito says he “was never involved in, … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged George Church, Jeffrey Epstein, Marvin Minsky, MIT Media Lab
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Would you take Epstein’s money to fund your research?
Note: Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell on August 10, 2019. The following post was written before news of his death emerged. In 2016, I attended a talk by a not-unknown environmental activist in Chennai (not Nityanand Jayaraman, before … Continue reading
Posted in Op-eds, Science
Tagged BuzzFeed, Central Pollution Control Board, Crohn's disease, ethics, Jeffrey Epstein, melanoma, National green Tribunal, nationalism, research funding, Volkswagen
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