Lubos Motl's forced resignation from Harvard University Physics Department

Discussion:

(too old to reply)

Jack Sarfatti

2007-01-23 22:06:04 UTC

Memorandum for the Record

I complained to Amazon about Lubos Motl smearing Woit's & Smolin's
anti-string theory books as "crank" and "crackpot." At least he reviewed
those. In my case he never bought any of my books about UFOs,
paranormal, quantum physics, relativity, my autobiography, etc from
Amazon, he does not own them, he never read them, and yet he tagged them
with insults and slurs. It now looks like Amazon will not allow
non-customers who did not buy the books from them to tag them with
slander and libelous language in acts of personal vengeance as was so in
the case of Lubos Motl. Motl insults Sir Roger Penrose as "disconnected"
from Reality, but at least he reviewed Roger's book. It's one thing for
people to flame each other in e-mail, it's quite another to do it
irresponsibly like Lubos Motl making financially damaging comments under
false circumstances commenting negatively on books never read without
specific details in a review to substantiate the allegations.

People like Lubos who live in glass houses should not throw stones

http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~motl/

Lubos was, in reality, fired last week or so from Harvard Physics
Department (outwardly he "resigned" - but no one willingly resigns from
Harvard in mid-year obviously) for precisely this kind of unprofessional
public activity. Too much blogging and calling people bad names and too
little research. Not wise for a young man without tenure. BTW for the
record I had nothing to do with Harvard's decision and did not at all
try to get Lubos fired. I only found out about his tags of my books
after he tendered his resignation. Lubos, of course, uses me as his
scapegoat in this tawdry affair. Wikipedia should learn from Amazon. It
was Lubos Motl working for Shermer et-al at CSICOPS who got me into the
War with Wiki and whose associate Calton Bolick keeps false information
on me in my bio, e.g. me and Uri Geller. They keep "reverting"
corrections to distorted information about what allegedly happened in
1975 as if it is true today in 2007 - that is Calton's doing. Jaron
Lanier's description of Wikipedia as "Digital Maoist" Cult attempting to
take over the Internet like The Borg is apt.

Somewhere on Wiki Lubos writes I did not write to his bosses but he
seems to have forgotten that. In any case it was Lubos who fired the
first shot across my bow, not the other way round and, again I repeat, I
played no active role in ending his short career in the Physics Big
Leagues at Harvard. He did it all by his little self without any help
from me. Let him blame Karmic Destiny. ;-)

PS, It also appears that Lubos has made blacklists for webmaster of
Harvard Physics with names like "scum", "criminals", "cranks" and
"crackpots" - sounds like Lubos since he invented some of those tags on
Amazon now removed.

References
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Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:57:05 -0500 (EST)
From: Lubos Motl <***@physics.harvard.edu>
To: Jack Sarfatti <***@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Has China shot down a US NRO Satellite starting real Space War?
In-Reply-To: <ED162CB0-40DD-4781-8480-***@pacbell.net>
Message-ID: <***@login.physics.harvard.edu>
References: <007701c73b65$efcc0750$***@a7n8xedx>
<F9F5437A-8DEE-48E7-B1C5-***@pacbell.net>
<ED162CB0-40DD-4781-8480-***@pacbell.net>
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Incidentally, you were the first external person who has created a very
unpleasant situation for me at Harvard, and this has repeated itself lots
of times and this fucked up job has always been used as a tool to
blackmail me. I don't want to be blackmailed and manipulated like that all
the time. Best, Lubos
______________________________________________________________________________
E-mail: ***@matfyz.cz fax: +1-617/496-0110 Web:
http://lumo.matfyz.cz/
eFax: +1-801/454-1858 work: +1-617/384-9488 home: +1-617/868-4487
(call)
Webs: http://schwinger.harvard.edu/~motl/ http://motls.blogspot.com/
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Exhibit B.
From: ***@physics.harvard.edu
Subject: Re: Penrose on the Maldacena conjecture & Ed Witten
Date: January 19, 2007 6:55:32 AM PST
To: ***@pacbell.net
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I don't depend on any grant but I just resigned. It's probably not your
business to ask, is it? Best, Lubos
______________________________________________________________________________
E-mail: ***@matfyz.cz fax: +1-617/496-0110 Web:
http://lumo.matfyz.cz/
eFax: +1-801/454-1858 work: +1-617/384-9488 home: +1-617/868-4487
(call)
Webs: http://schwinger.harvard.edu/~motl/ http://motls.blogspot.com/
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Exhibit C.
From: ***@feynman.harvard.edu
Subject: Re: The Wit & Wisdom of Lubos Motl on George Chapline & Lisa
Randall ;-)
Date: April 6, 2006 12:07:47 PM PDT
To: ***@pacbell.net
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Dear Jack,
I've read most of this text of yours and it's entertaining. Thanks,
Lubos
______________________________________________________________________________
E-mail: ***@matfyz.cz fax: +1-617/496-0110 Web:
http://lumo.matfyz.cz/
eFax: +1-801/454-1858 work: +1-617/384-9488 home: +1-617/868-4487
(call)
Webs: http://schwinger.harvard.edu/~motl/ http://motls.blogspot.com/
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Jack Sarfatti
***@pacbell.net
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research,
would it?"
- Albert Einstein
http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=23999
http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.jack.sarfatti
http://qedcorp.com/APS/Dec122006.ppt
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1310681739984181006&q=Sarfatti+Causation&hl=en
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lub/sets/72157594439814784

galathaea

2007-01-24 01:04:25 UTC

Permalink

lubos has been hunting for cranks for some time

he is very full of himself
and overconfident as many intelligent young men become

perhaps this will humble his certainty
maybe grow him some perspective on what is important
and how damaged and damaging he has become...

Post by Jack Sarfatti
Memorandum for the Record
I complained to Amazon about Lubos Motl smearing Woit's & Smolin's
anti-string theory books as "crank" and "crackpot." At least he reviewed
those. In my case he never bought any of my books about UFOs,
paranormal, quantum physics, relativity, my autobiography, etc from
Amazon, he does not own them, he never read them, and yet he tagged them
with insults and slurs. It now looks like Amazon will not allow
non-customers who did not buy the books from them to tag them with
slander and libelous language in acts of personal vengeance as was so in
the case of Lubos Motl. Motl insults Sir Roger Penrose as "disconnected"
from Reality, but at least he reviewed Roger's book. It's one thing for
people to flame each other in e-mail, it's quite another to do it
irresponsibly like Lubos Motl making financially damaging comments under
false circumstances commenting negatively on books never read without
specific details in a review to substantiate the allegations.
People like Lubos who live in glass houses should not throw stones
http://www.physics.rutgers.edu/~motl/
Lubos was, in reality, fired last week or so from Harvard Physics
Department (outwardly he "resigned" - but no one willingly resigns from
Harvard in mid-year obviously) for precisely this kind of unprofessional
public activity. Too much blogging and calling people bad names and too
little research. Not wise for a young man without tenure. BTW for the
record I had nothing to do with Harvard's decision and did not at all
try to get Lubos fired. I only found out about his tags of my books
after he tendered his resignation. Lubos, of course, uses me as his
scapegoat in this tawdry affair. Wikipedia should learn from Amazon. It
was Lubos Motl working for Shermer et-al at CSICOPS who got me into the
War with Wiki and whose associate Calton Bolick keeps false information
on me in my bio, e.g. me and Uri Geller. They keep "reverting"
corrections to distorted information about what allegedly happened in
1975 as if it is true today in 2007 - that is Calton's doing. Jaron
Lanier's description of Wikipedia as "Digital Maoist" Cult attempting to
take over the Internet like The Borg is apt.
Somewhere on Wiki Lubos writes I did not write to his bosses but he
seems to have forgotten that. In any case it was Lubos who fired the
first shot across my bow, not the other way round and, again I repeat, I
played no active role in ending his short career in the Physics Big
Leagues at Harvard. He did it all by his little self without any help
from me. Let him blame Karmic Destiny. ;-)
PS, It also appears that Lubos has made blacklists for webmaster of
Harvard Physics with names like "scum", "criminals", "cranks" and
"crackpots" - sounds like Lubos since he invented some of those tags on
Amazon now removed.
References
2007 07:01:31 -0800
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Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:57:05 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Has China shot down a US NRO Satellite starting real Space War?
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Incidentally, you were the first external person who has created a very
unpleasant situation for me at Harvard, and this has repeated itself lots
of times and this fucked up job has always been used as a tool to
blackmail me. I don't want to be blackmailed and manipulated like that all
the time. Best, Lubos
______________________________________________________________________________
eFax: +1-801/454-1858 work: +1-617/384-9488 home: +1-617/868-4487
(call)
Webs:http://schwinger.harvard.edu/~motl/ http://motls.blogspot.com/
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Exhibit B.
Subject: Re: Penrose on the Maldacena conjecture & Ed Witten
Date: January 19, 2007 6:55:32 AM PST
2007 06:55:36 -0800
X-Yahoofilteredbulk: 128.103.101.20
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2007 09:55:33 -0500
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I don't depend on any grant but I just resigned. It's probably not your
business to ask, is it? Best, Lubos
______________________________________________________________________________
eFax: +1-801/454-1858 work: +1-617/384-9488 home: +1-617/868-4487
(call)
Webs:http://schwinger.harvard.edu/~motl/ http://motls.blogspot.com/
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Exhibit C.
Subject: Re: The Wit & Wisdom of Lubos Motl on George Chapline & Lisa
Randall ;-)
Date: April 6, 2006 12:07:47 PM PDT
2006 12:07:50 -0700
X-Originating-Ip: [128.103.101.233]
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Dear Jack,
I've read most of this text of yours and it's entertaining. Thanks,
Lubos
______________________________________________________________________________
eFax: +1-801/454-1858 work: +1-617/384-9488 home: +1-617/868-4487
(call)
Webs:http://schwinger.harvard.edu/~motl/ http://motls.blogspot.com/
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jack Sarfatti
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research,
would it?"
- Albert Einsteinhttp://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=23999http://lifeboat.com/ex/bios.jack.sarfattihttp://qedcorp.com/APS/Dec122006.ppthttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1310681739984181006&q=Sarfat...http://www.flickr.com/photos/lub/sets/72157594439814784

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
galathaea: prankster, fablist, magician, liar

fishfry

2007-01-24 01:35:40 UTC

Permalink

Post by Jack Sarfatti
Lubos was, in reality, fired last week or so from Harvard Physics
Department

Nothing about this on Woit's blog. Is this confirmed?

galathaea

2007-01-24 02:37:31 UTC

Permalink

Post by Jack Sarfatti
Lubos was, in reality, fired last week or so from Harvard Physics
DepartmentNothing about this on Woit's blog. Is this confirmed?

it is already on his wikibio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubo%C5%A1_Motl

in words eerily similar to jack's...

on harvard's physics staff web site
motl's 287a course teachings
redirect to courses taught by others

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
galathaea: prankster, fablist, magician, liar

fishfry

2007-01-24 05:09:04 UTC

Permalink

Post by galathaea

Post by Jack Sarfatti
Lubos was, in reality, fired last week or so from Harvard Physics
DepartmentNothing about this on Woit's blog. Is this confirmed?

it is already on his wikibio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubo%C5%A1_Motl
in words eerily similar to jack's...

As of 9pm Tuesday (pdt) Motl's Wiki page has been purged of the
paragraph in question. I only know about all this stuff from what I read
on the Web ... but would Harvard fire a physicist for antics on Amazon?

galathaea

2007-01-24 08:15:39 UTC

Permalink

Post by fishfry

Post by galathaea

Post by Jack Sarfatti
Lubos was, in reality, fired last week or so from Harvard Physics
DepartmentNothing about this on Woit's blog. Is this confirmed?

it is already on his wikibio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubo%C5%A1_Motl
in words eerily similar to jack's...

i am sure you already are aware
that people with the mathematical skill
and physical understanding
of lubos' level
often have strong visual obssessions

they tend to write or draw many diagrams and figures
and attach complex meanings to their forms

these types of obssessions can be very tiring
as visual processing is particularly energy intensive

so the strongly mathematical can be more sleepy
irritable
particularly this time of year
with short days keeping melatonin levels high
and seasonal affect disorder setting in

anyway
my point is that explosive conflicts are common this time of year
and particularly for those who spend much energy
to think deeply about things

i suspect lubos began to overfocus on something
some dynamic went bad for him
and he may have legitimately resigned
feeling unforced in the maneuver

if the story pans out

jack's wikiediting aside

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
galathaea: prankster, fablis, magician, liar

Ivar Rosquist

2007-01-24 16:36:00 UTC

Permalink

Post by galathaea

Post by fishfry
As of 9pm Tuesday (pdt) Motl's Wiki page has been purged of the
paragraph in question. I only know about all this stuff from what I read
on the Web ... but would Harvard fire a physicist for antics on Amazon?

i am sure you already are aware
that people with the mathematical skill
and physical understanding
of lubos' level
often have strong visual obssessions

Whatever his mathematical skills, in his replies to the criticisms of
string theory brought up by Woit and Smolin, Motl came across as an
opinionated individual, apparently able to conduct ad hominem attacks and
little else - that way providing support for the most lurid claims by both
authors on the character of the string theory community.

Luminoso

2007-01-24 19:23:54 UTC

Permalink

Post by Ivar Rosquist

Post by galathaea

i am sure you already are aware
that people with the mathematical skill
and physical understanding
of lubos' level
often have strong visual obssessions

String "theory" doesn't seem to be verifiable or
falsifiable, it's not really 'science' at all.
It might represent the first try at an entirely
new way of thinking about the universe that
eventually LEADS to something that can be verified
or perhaps innovations in instrumentation will make
it possible to observe higher-dimensional processes
that confirm the theory but, as is, well ....

Do those who condemn string theory deserve to be
bad-mouthed ? Do those who advocate string theory
deserve to be bad-mouthed ? The answer to both
is "it depends".

Luminoso

2007-01-24 19:06:38 UTC

Permalink

Are you kidding ? Obnoxious and judgemental, slanderous,
negative, halfway-informed, insulting ... just watch,
he'll land a job as a science consultant for CNN, FOX
or one of the others. Hey, Mark Furman was a racist,
abusive, evidence-falsifying all-'round bad cop and
now he's the 'expert' CNN uses anytime there's an
issue involving police. He should be in jail, but
instead he's on prime time.