LLNL Blog makes the news!!!!
Anthony Bothwell, San Francisco
The blog that calls itself "LLNL - The True Story" has had a lively exchange lately regarding the proposal to use affirmative action to select an African American as the next director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
One anonymous post opined that affirmative action is racist. That argument, though legitimate, is overcome by the need to make up for past racist discrimination. Other anonymous critics merely engaged in name-calling (e.g., "nut job") instead of making an argument.
Those whose only answer is ad hominem have no argument.
Comments
I cannot find any posts on the LLNL blog calling Bothwell a nut job, so I am not sure what he is talking about. With that I think the idea
of choosing someone simply for the sake of diversity is kind of insulting to the person being chosen. I also do not understand the argument that we must hire diverse people not based on qualifications but because of past racism. How far past do you mean? I can understand if somebody who was qualified and was denied a job in 1960 that it would only be fair to give them the job or an equivalent like job today but how many people can there be like that today. They would be like 80 years or older. In any case we chose a Director and she was one of obvious contenders with all her LLNL/UC management experience ect. You can argue about the idea hiring another insider so to speak but Parney was not exactly a great success.
Calling someone a nutcase is kind of argument. For example someone may in fact be a nutcase and make nutcase arguments. You may hear someone say "so and so just made a new argument" but if you know so and so is a nutcase do you really want to take the time and listen to that argument? Probability would dictate it is probably another nutcase idea. It is not proof that it is a nutcase idea but just the odds are it is. Now Bothwell has made a number of rather dubious claims in the pass, I would not say they are nutcase but they are not very serious nor should be taken seriously. When Bothwell makes a statement I am simply dubious because of his pass record. In this case I did read his argument about the labs director and it was rather weak. He went on to suggest Tyson as a world renowned scientist who could lead the lab. Now this a complete joke and shows that Bothwell is indeed not a serious person. In fact this is closer to what a nutcase would say. Neil de Grass Tryson, is not a world renowned scientist by any measure. He is no experience whatsoever with nuclear weapons. He is a world renowned science communicator but has little in the way any scientific or technical accomplishments and has not been involved with actual science in years and years. It sounds like a poor choice to head a lab, since the labs does scientific and technical work not science communication. It simply shows Bothwell is not serious, does not understand the issues and thinks more like a little kid. " I see this person on TV and they talk about science, they must be a super smart scientist, neat!" It would be like saying Bill Ny, should be the lab director. With that and other statements Bothwell has made I do no seem him as someone you should listen to or consider. Of course one day he could have some really great ideas but with his record I am not going to take a chance with that. It not an insult it is simply looking at the data limited that it may be and making some judgments about probability.
The 4/24/21 8:42 AM post by Anonymous, that Dr. Tyson “is not a world renowned scientist by any measure,” reflects on the education of Anonymous. Bothwell, a former LLNL Public Affairs Director, did not nominate the Hayden Planetarium Director for LLNL Director but included him in a list proving that some African Americans have become world renowned physicists.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson:
BA Physics, Harvard Univ.
MA Astronomy, Univ. of Texas at Austin
PhD Astrophysics, Columbia Univ.
Anthony Peirson Xavier Bothwell:
BSFS, Georgetown Univ.
MS Journalism, Boston Univ.
JD, John F. Kennedy School of Law
LLM summa cum laude, Golden Gate Univ. School of Law
Current candidate, scientiae judicae doctor
He is a popularizer of science, and not even a very good one compared to Sagan.
Those who can't, teach... or try and become popularizers or influencers.