.
Speaking of elderly dicks (looking at you, Nino), here’s a story from Slate‘s science & health editor:
Jim Watson is one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. He is also a peevish bigot. History will remember him for his co-discovery of the structure of DNA, in 1953. This week, Watson is insuring that history, or at least the introduction to every obituary, will also remember him for being a jerk.
In a fit of pique and self-pity, Watson is selling his Nobel Prize medallion. He will become the first Nobel laureate in history to do so. He gave the Financial Times several reasons why, this Thursday, he will auction off the gold disk, symbol of the highest honor in science (expected price: up to $3.5 million). He claims that, even though he ran major research institutions and served on corporate boards until the age of 79, he needs the money. He might donate it to universities, he said, or buy a David Hockney painting. Oh, and he also mentioned to the FT that he’s selling the medal because he has become an “unperson,” and “no one really wants to admit I exist.”
This is not about the Hockney. Selling the medal is Watson’s way of sticking his tongue out at the scientific establishment, which has largely shunned him since 2007. Watson had been making racist and sexist remarks throughout his career, but he really outdid himself seven years ago when he told the Sunday Times that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really.” He further said that while we may wish intelligence to be equal across races, “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.”
Finally, for once in his life, Watson didn’t get away with making ignorant, prejudiced statements…
***********
Apart from noticing those who don’t improve with age, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
CONGRATULATIONS!
Weak. Ginsburg and Scalia are good friends.
Plus the cranky cons already own the Court anyway, they don’t need her gone.
skerry
I already mentioned this below in the thread about Harry Reid. I’m done with old people in power. Retire, already.
Kryptik, A Man Without A Country
A hearty FYWP for yet another disappearing post.
EDIT: To reiterate what my eaten post said, I fully expect American conservatives to embrace Watson as proof of who the “REAL racists” are.
Which would be funny if the racists hadn’t been winning in a landslide lately.
dmsilev
Watson is just one of a long list of Nobel winners who proved that making a major scientific discovery doesn’t necessarily translate to having expertise in other fields or being a good person. See also, for instance, Brian Josephson and William Shockely.
Kryptik, A Man Without A Country
Ok, I seriously don’t know what’s being said that keeps catching my post as spam. Is it ‘Watson’?
Kryptik, A Man Without A Country
I unfortunately fully expect that guy to become the new cause celebre amongst American conservatives as proof positive of who the REAL racists are. I’m pretty sure we already have a new GOP congresscritter ready to exalt him for speaking ‘truth to power’.
It’d be laughable if the racists weren’t winning in a landslide lately.
(Note: FYWP. Apparently Mr. W is a no-no word, which makes it hard to talk about him)
Pogonip
We have everything arranged and are beginning to go through Mom’s stuff. Attention packrats! Try to restrain your accumulative tendencies, because when you die, your relatives are going to be stuck with all that stuff.
the Conster
I’ve become really prejudiced against old white men. I’m sick of seeing them everywhere when it’s way past time for them to get out of the way.
mai naem mobile
I didnt know about the Cosby stuff and I didn’t know Watson made these comments before the 07 stuff. I’ll admit i can be ignorant about pop culture stuff like the Kardashians but I’m generally not ignorant about stuff like this. Why wasn’t the Watson stuff well known. I believe he was working at Cold Spring Harbor in 07. How the hell did he manage to get a position like that being a well known bigot?
Zed
That is such unmitigated horseshit. The Cold Spring Harbor laboratories still provide him with lavish housing even after he stepped down from his position there.
Poopyman
@the Conster: Well, you’re shit outta luck, because you’ve run out of ice floes to push us old guys out on.
Botsplainer
@Pogonip:
My folks are absolutely wedded to stuff, and it doesn’t help that dad is a compulsive antique buyer/scam victim. Theres some value to what he’s bought, but not what he thinks.
blueskies
“Diamond Jim” Watson — perfect example of an utter asshole nearly from birth. Essentially did one “great” thing in his youth, but upon closer examination, even that was nothing more than stealing data from a colleague (a woman, at that!), rushing an interpretation that many others would have arrived at if given the stolen data, and then self-promoting for decades.
Really and truly, a poster child for the the rightwing since forever.
Snarkworth
So if I buy Watson’s medallion, do I get to put on my resume that I have a Nobel Prize in medicine?
Patricia Kayden
Too bad he’s such a bigot. His book on coding DNA is pretty good. Had to read it in college. Oh well.
Citizen_X
@Poopyman: Very clever of you!
NCSteve
And, of course, let us not forget Watson’s outright theft of the share of the credit for his discovery due Rosalind Franklin. Dr. Franklin was robbed of eligibility to share in Watson and Crick’s prize by her untimely death, but even had she lived, Watson, a thoroughgoing misogynist in addition to being a racist crank, flat-out stole her work. According to Crick, her groundbreaking crystallography that disclosed the double-helix structure was surreptitiously shown to Watson without her knowledge and then, once that was revealed, he denied the significance of her work to his discovery, denigrated the importance of her field and her work particularly and generally behaved like the complete asshole he is.
Earlier today, I was rather forcibly reminded that just because you completely agree with someone, it doesn’t mean they aren’t complete, raging assholes. Likewise, we’ve seen time and again that being awarded a Nobel, or at least one of the “real” science Nobels, doesn’t mean you aren’t an utterly vile worthless excuse for a human being. Yeah, looking at you decaying corpse of William Shockley.
Oh, and of course RT reports him as the victim of unfair persecution and the righteous dudebro hipster douchenozzle asswipes who think RT is a new source are there in the comments to lionize racism as the Truth That Dare Not Be Spoken.
Tenar Darell
@skerry: Justice Ginsberg begs to differ. #NotAllOldPeople
Amir Khalid
I was baffled by this news. If I were to buy Watson’s Nobel Prize medal (having no other use for ten million ringgit, presumably), wouldn’t the prize-winning achievement still be Watson’s and not transferable? Without that, the medal is nothing.
BUDDY H
ARSON SUSPECTED AT ALBANY NY HOME THAT ASSISTS IMMIGRANTS
http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S3636601.shtml?cat=300
Vans used by the house were found near the blaze with slashed tires.
So far no suspects or leads have been released.
retr2327
Shouldn’t Justice Thomas be drinking from a can of Coke? (or was it Pepsi?)
Bobby Thomson
After he and Crick basically tried to steal all the credit for Franklin’s research, yeah, fuck that guy.
Villago Delenda Est
@Bobby Thomson: Oh, so he’s an asshoie on numerous levels, to include actual science.
The man should not die peacefully in his bed. He should die in searing pain.
Citizen_X
@Zed: He also (not in the link) whined about how he “only has academic income” to live on. Poor baby!
Thousands of postdocs in this country would love to have a steady academic income to live on. But at least one salary is apparently being taken up by this asshole. Fie!
dmsilev
Professor W. is hardly the first Nobel prize winner to go off the rails in dramatic fashion. Two other examples which come to mind are William Shockley (co-inventor of the transistor and racist asshole) and Brian Josephson, who, well I’ll let Wikipedia tell the story:
Those last three are basically hitting the pseudoscientific trifecta (‘water memory’ is a big part of homeopathy).
Amir Khalid
I don’t get it. If I had ten million ringgit burning a hole in my pocket and bought me a Nobel Prize medal, would that make the prize-winning achievement mine? No way. Without it, the medal is nothing. And if I displayed it, would I tell people: “Dr James W sold me this Nobel Prize medal out of childishness”?
ETA:
@dmsilev:
But Shockley and Josephson didn’t sell their medals, did they?
ThresherK
@Pogonip: I recently had to do the same.
Note that “He who dies with the most toys wins” probably was coined by a guy whose mom had to nag him to put away his toys when he was done playing with them, during his childhood.
Putting away someone else’s toys is little fun, a lifetime’s worth of packratting even less so. I am determined to not leave many “toys” for any survivors in my family to hassle with.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@dmsilev: Informative and thank you. This asshole basically killed an ex-girlfriend of mine, who sadly was stupid enough to buy into his woo shit as a wholly ineffective method of curing her otherwise very curable cancer.
Cacti
@dmsilev:
Also too, while not Nobel winners, the Nazi scientists who designed the V-2 were hired by the victorious Allies, and went on to establish the US and Russian space programs. Ditto for practical jet aircraft.
Mike E
Prepping for my “internals” audit tomorrow, since I’m over 50 it’s that time. Gonna drink a cocktail in a little bit that’ll make the procedure, um, more transparent. Stay back! Farther…
I have a question for you who have done this recently: I’m a bit skittish about taking the optional anti-nausea med Reglan (don’t recall taking this for my last colonoscopy prep) so if you have any insight in making the prep go by smoothly, I’d appreciate it.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
I’ll be working on rearranging part one now that I’ve thoroughly plotted out part two and have a good idea of not only where this novel is going but also how it’s going to get there. Unless I get distracted by the internet.
Iowa Old Lady
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Go you!
skerry
How One Woman Could Hit The Reset Button In The Case Against Darren Wilson
Maura McShane, Presiding Judge St. Louis County, MO
(314) 615-1502
If you’d like to weigh in.
SRW1
@Bobby Thomson:
I think Watson and Crick are somewhat overrated. There’s no doubt that deciphering the structure of DNA was an epochal achievement, but besides the fact that the two fellas had pre-occupied themselves with the question and therefore primed their mind, what really helped them getting to the goal line first was to have somewhat questionable access to Franklins X-ray data..
It’s not like without W&C we still wouldn’t understand DNS structure. Rather, it would have taken a few months more until someone else, seeing that data, would have had a Heureka moment. In that sense W&C are nowhere near a guy like Einstein, who truly opened up an entirely new perspective in physics all by himself.
Pogonip
@ThresherK: My mom was traumatized as a child–my grandmother was abusive–and since she never took to drink, maybe the packratting was caused by the trauma.
Packrats, switch to something else. Anything else. Your survivors will appreciate it.
raven
I’m way better at taking it easy and chillin than I was at 40. I can’t tell you how many times I had fish hooks in my fingers and hands last week and I relaxed and got them out without further damage where, in the old days, I would have reacted quickly and made it worse. How’s that for irrelevant?
ArchTeryx
@Mike E: From a veteran of literally dozens of colonoscopies:
Buy some Sprite, Sierra Mist, or other clear soda. Drink a little of it after you take a dose of the purge. The sugar water tends to calm the stomach, and gets the horrible taste out of your mouth. It is no guarantee but it’s worked for me and several other folks I know of. The clear fluid won’t interfere with the purge at all – just be sure to stop drinking it midnight before the scoping.
If that doesn’t work, the anti-nausea medicine is the next bet, as the purge needs to flush all the way through to do its work. (A little queasiness is normal. Serious vomiting will cause all sorts of havoc both with the purge and with your body).
raven
@ArchTeryx: I did a low fiber diet for three days and it really helped.
Cacti
Speaking of cranky old men…
Federal judge allows libel suit against Glenn Beck to go forward.
Judge also rejects defense argument that the Saudi student libeled by Beck as a conspirator in the Boston Marathon bombing was an “involuntary public figure” based on their mere presence at the event, so no actual malice by Beck need be shown.
The Judge finally noted that Beck continued to make false statements about the plaintiff, even after he’d been cleared by investigators.
Link
Linda Featheringill
@Poopyman:
:-)
Poopyman
@Mike E: Never took it. Never needed it.
Mike E
@ArchTeryx: I have some gatorade, but I will jog across the street to get some un-cola…I didn’t run into any issues the last time but that was like 10 years ago. Thanks!
eta @Poopyman: I’ll borrow yer nym for 18 hours if’n you don’t mind.
eta+ @aimai: Cool, thanks.
aimai
@Mike E: I’ve never been prescribed an anti nausea med for a colonoscopy, and I’ve had several of them. Do you mean for the last bit of the prep? Its definitely hard to choke that stuff down and I’ve been plenty nauseated by it but I’ve never taken any med for it and if I can’t get all the prep down, towards the end, I’ve never had my doctor criticize me. Usually if you have been diligent with the earlier foods or started the liquid part of the diet a little earlythe late clean out isn’t the only important factor. Good luck with it. Its a horrible thing, hte prep, though the procedure has always been pretty easy.
Mike in NC
Last year our artificial Christmas tree basically just fell apart after 15 years of use. To avoid the hassle of hauling another one in and out of the attic above the garage, I convinced the wife to get a real tree. Balancing it was a bit of a struggle but we eventually got it done and I do like the Christmastime smell of a real fir tree.
raven
@Mike E: Also, drink your stuff through a straw, no smell.
Mnemosyne
@Mike E:
I had mine over the summer, and the best advice I got was to put the prep liquid in the freezer about an hour before it was time to mix it with cold water and drink it COLD COLD COLD. As cold as you can without it actually freezing. It deadens the taste and makes it easier to get it down in a few gulps. I neglected to do this for the second dose and it was definitely a LOT harder to drink it down when it was slightly warm.
I also kept a 32-ounce mug full of water/juice combo with me and started drinking that immediately after getting the prep down since my prep required that you chase it with 32 additional ounces of liquid. I also saw people online suggest treating each gulp like a tequila shot and sucking on a lime or lemon slice after each one to deaden the taste.
Honestly, the boredom got to me more than anything else. I’ve had worse cramps from food poisoning, but the whole process drags. on. forever. I brought my Kindle and iPad into the bathroom with me and that helped. Basically, I made a little nest for myself and camped out most of the day with pillows, a throw blanket, etc.
The procedure itself was cake — basically, it was “Now we’re going to push the medication –” and I was out.
ThresherK
@Pogonip: I’m sorry to hear that. There was nothing like that at work in the situations in my family. Plenty of other dysfunctions, true. And the freeing effect of my sloughing off things from our recent move is liberating.
Like the proverbial threat of “I have to straighten up before the maid gets here*”, I am hoping a lease will curb the worst excesses of stowing things for a “later” or a use which never gets here, in each of us.
*I have never had a maid, but I understand some folks do this.
Mike E
@Mnemosyne: Good stuff, will do!
Jack the Second
@dmsilev: Don’t forget Linus Pauling!
source
Pogonip
@Mike in NC: Careful, they are a fire hazard. Keep the little lights well away from the needles.
NotMax
As at long last an Open Thread, repeating a smile eliciter from below:
Bravo, Shane!
NotMax
@Pogonip
Have zero experience with Xmas trees, and proper caution is always to be honored, but also guessing the newer LED lights generate a lot less heat than the older incandescents.
Schlemazel
@Mike E:
It was never offered me or the missus a pill but she told them that anesthetic makes her ill so they added something to the IV, no idea what, she does not remember. I don’t believe I got anything but I have been put under so many times I don’t think it bothers me any more.
EDIT: anti-nausea for the prep?!? Nope, never heard of it. I guess hang on to it just in case.
NotMax
@Schlemazel
One thing commonly used is a concoction which blocks the formation of memories.
JCT
@Zed: This. What a WATB this old bastard is. Deserves to be “ignored”. He believes everything he said, it wasn’t the first time.
He is an ardent misogynist – when I was in grad school in the mid-80’s he came to speak. I went to school at a place that had largely been founded to hire scientists who were blacklisted during the McCarthy era and female academics who couldn’t get faculty positions above technician level despite having PhDs.
Watson’s talk was packed, SRO. During the *introduction* to his talk he went off on some crazy-ass screed about Rosalind Franklin, “truth of the matter is that she was ugly and crazy and that’s why she was in science because no man would have her”. Mind you – tons of senior women faculty sitting there. Folks started to hiss and up in the back people started to filter out. This was 30 years ago and I still remember his bile towards the woman who made his damn prize possible.
Saw a great comment the other day – if only we could crowd fund and buy his medal to give to Franklin’s family.
john fremont
@Mike E: On my last colonoscopy, I calmed my stomach using ginger ale. Ginger settles the stomach and it’s a clear liquid.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
ooh! Something else to distract me from writing. NESN is actually showing a women’s hockey game tonight and I’ll be watching it on the big screen at the Roseville BWW. Granted, it’s Harvard vs. Dartmouth, two teams I really don’t care about* but let’s reward them for showing women’s hockey at all.
*I’d care about Harvard just simply because they were a top ten team with a roster loaded with returning US Olympians (it helps to get selected when your coach is also the Olympic team coach), but they got blasted 10-2 by Boston College over the weekend and don’t really look ready for prime time.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@NotMax: He doesn’t need help with that.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: Precisely. You’re not as unconscious as you think you are, you just don’t remember anything.
Violet
How long does it take after the colonoscopy before you’re feeling mostly normal again? I’ve got one coming up in a few weeks and it’ll be close enough to Christmas, and right before a busy weekend of holiday parties. I’m hoping I’m okay the following day but my one experience with anesthesia left me drugged up for a week and honestly I felt the effects for six months.
Baud
@efgoldman:
You know what you did.
Iowa Old Lady
@Violet: I was ok by that evening.
Violet
@Iowa Old Lady: Thanks. I hope it goes that well for me. Right now I’m scheduled for a 1 p.m. procedure because the earlier slots were filled. I’m hoping for a cancellation that will get me in earlier. The earlier in the day the better chance I’m recovered by the following day when the parties start.
Mike E
@Violet: I’ll let you know, but the center only mentions ‘sedation’ and I remember being aware during my last procedure a decade ago…being ‘out’ would be nice tho. I’be been +0 along with our blog lord :-)
Jebediah, RBG
@Botsplainer:
Has there yet been a satisfying denouement to the your tmobile story from some other thread?
Violet
@Mike E: A friend had propofol–the Michael Jackson drug. She said it was awesome. She felt great, didn’t remember anything. She thought it was just starting and they were waking her up. They told me that’s what they’ll give me. I don’t know what I had the previous time I was under anesthesia.
NotMax
Well, this thread ought to generate some interesting choices of ads for those of you who still see the wretched things.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Mike E:
reglan basically auments peristalsis. i’d take it.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Schlemazel:
Probably zofran, a chemoreceptor blocker.
Kevin
Sounds like Andrew Sullivan’s favourite scientist to me.
Tree With Water
This is how John Lennon handled the situation when he returned his MBE medallion to the Queen:
Your Majesty,
I am returning my MBE as a protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against ‘Cold Turkey’ slipping down the charts.
With love. John Lennon of Bag
shelley
Jim Watson? I guess Jeff Goldblum regrets playing him in “The Double Helix”
zed
@Citizen_X: I’d love his income, I just got a termination notice from the HIV lab I work in…
CrustyDem
@dmsilev:
Any list of wacked out Nobel Prize winners that is missing Kary Mullis is lacking..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kary_Mullis
CanadaGoose
@Amir Khalid: Like buying an Academy Award or someone else’s military medals. People collect damn near anything.
CanadaGoose
@Violet: I was totally fine the next day. No remnant of anesthesia at all.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Gin & Tonic:
I think they may have given me actual anesthesia as well — they were very worried about my (naturally) low blood pressure and it took a while for them to wake me afterwards. But they did import/export with me (colonoscopy and endoscopy), so that may be why I needed actual sedation.
My coworker was just given the amnesiac stuff and the doctor told her afterwards that she was hilarious and cracked jokes the whole time.