La Shawn Barber
04.25.05
Professor Rine Made It Up

Remember the Berkeley professor who warned his laptop thief about classifed data and federal agents? Well, he made it up, as many of you suspected. It sounded good, though. For background, see Berkeley Laptop Thief.

(Hat tip: Michelle Malkin)

Update: Joshua says you’re all wrong about Professor Rine’s “the facts just aren’t that important” remark.

Posted by La Shawn @ 1:59 pm Permalink
Filed under: General    


11 Comments

  1. Heh.

    Comment by SCSIwuzzy — 04.25.05 @ 2:12 pm

  2. What? A professor at Cal made things up that he told in class?! Gee that has not happened since 1963; well not more than a million times at any rate.

    Comment by Rod Stanton — 04.25.05 @ 2:36 pm

  3. I really don’t get what all the fuss was about…
    (1) A student stole a professor’s laptop…
    (2) Professor makes up a story (far-fetched to those in the know, possibly believable by naive undergrads) in order to scare the thief into returning said laptop…
    (3) It’s one of those quirky stories that the press picks up on… I highly doubt the professor meant for the story to get such widespread play… he was simply trying to scare some thief into giving up the goods.

    So why is this getting this much play in the blogosphere??
    Is it because he is a BERZERKELY professor? You know, code for him being some crazy, pinko commie?

    Berkeley’s liberal reputation is mostly hype… the conservatives and Christians on campus are very vocal and very well represented… And let us not forget that Berkeley is the home of the laser and nuclear bomb (among a few other universities).

    Comment by jab — 04.25.05 @ 2:54 pm

  4. Shame.

    Comment by DarkStar — 04.25.05 @ 2:59 pm

  5. Jab, you know it’s the same old, same old of the ends justifying the means. Love his money quote: “Although I have unlimited respect for facts, and delight in their discovery and appreciation, I have come to the obvious yet almost blasphemous view that, with respect to teaching, the facts just aren’t that important.”

    Isn’t that the same ideology as whazisface Hirsch saying that he doesn’t bother with the facts when speaking, altho he is “scrupulous” to the truth in his writings. Yeah, right, liar, liar..

    Comment by Andy — 04.25.05 @ 3:03 pm

  6. Any thief smart enough to get away with the laptop would know better than to believe a Berkeley professor.

    Comment by Van Helsing — 04.25.05 @ 5:08 pm

  7. To be fair to the man, let’s examine his entire quote instead of saying the man doesn’t respect the truth:

    My present view about teaching has evolved from a difficulty I encounter in my research programs, and is but one example of the interaction between my teaching and research. Specifically, any “key word” search of the literature reveals approximately 300 new published papers per week in my research field. Clearly neither I nor anyone else reads 300 papers a week, so how is it that we can actually keep up with our fields? The solution to this problem would clearly be relevant to solving the central dilemma of teaching a rapidly progressing field. Although I have unlimited respect for facts, and delight in their discovery and appreciation, I have come to the obvious yet almost blasphemous view that, with respect to teaching, the facts just aren’t that important. Otherwise the weight of a truly modern biology text would be staggering. Actually, I suspect most professors in biology have come to this view but we do everything we can to avoid admitting it.

    What Prof. Rine is indicating is that you can’t possibly teach on the cutting edge of science because of the overflow data and new results. Rather you do your best to piece together a cohesive story that gets your students to think and to be engaged. New knowledge is continually supplanting the old. He’s not saying that you teach nonsense, but you teach what you can without fear that the details might have changed.

    I suspect that most biology textbooks in this country still say that one of the major differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes is that the former lacks a cytoskeleton, however this is blantantly wrong given research conducted in the last 3-5 years. The textbook lags and unless you are in that field you wouldn’t necessarily know it. Are those professors liars? No, rather they just aren’t at the cutting edge.

    Comment by Joshua — 04.25.05 @ 5:30 pm

  8. Joshua, I didn’t read the whole story, otherwise I would have agreed with the prof’s sentiment. My bad.

    Comment by Andy — 04.25.05 @ 11:17 pm

  9. The comment “The ends justifies the means” is only right and fair when it’s applied by liberals. If it’s done by a conservative, the entire world jumps on him/her.

    Again, I say it’s a “Do as I say, not as I do” mentality on the left.

    Comment by Dan — 04.26.05 @ 9:56 am

  10. Around the Blogosphere

    John Bolton Powerline, Blogs for Bush Lap-Top Liar Michelle Malkin, La Shawn Barber, Wizbang Color Coded Hate Crime Michelle Malkin,…

    Trackback by JackLewis.net — 04.26.05 @ 11:44 am

  11. Hope the professor isn’t arrested by Joe Friday cause he wants “just the facts ma’am” “Just the facts”.

    Comment by ratso ferrari — 04.26.05 @ 7:48 pm





La Shawn Barber's Corner - Copyright 2002 - 2009 LBC Media, All Rights Reserved.