Yeh's Thesis again

[Holloway3@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/4/1999 7:18:15 PM Pacific Standard Time,
jim.dukelow@pnl.gov writes:

<< On the basis of the evidence provided by Stewart Farber and others, Johns 
 Hopkins University's official handling of this admittably embarrassing 
 episode is, to be charitable, ethically challenged.  That said, they might 
 be credited for supporting and publishing (even if they chose not to admit 
 they had published) Dr. Yeh's dissertation research. >>

  The evidence provided by Stewart Farber on the alleged suppression of the
thesis is scant and unconvincing.  When pressed, about the only thing he could
say specifically, about their not making the thesis available to him, is that
a department secretary refused to acknowledge that he could get a copy of it.
It seems an exaggeration to generalize about a whole department or division of
a university, based on a phone conversation with one secretary.  Mr Farber
completely ignores the fact that the thesis is easily available, for anyone
who is interested and yet he maintains, even now, that Johns Hopkins tried to
suppress it.  

I think this sort of sweeping generalization and jumping to conclusions,
without a factual basis, is a common problem these days.  It happens in almost
every field, politics, science and every thing else.  I am sure some of you
have heard of the so-called Clinton death list.  This is a list of people,
most of whom have some slight connection with the President, who have died in
recent years.   The idea is that these deaths are too "coincidental".  Of
course those who spread the rumor  have never done any sort of statistical
analysis, to determine whether the list is at all unusual or not.  Many of
those on the list died of routine natural causes, at least according to the
best available information.  This does not keep the rumor mills from calling
some of the deaths "mysterious".  Apparently anything is mysterious if one
person thinks it so.   The Vince Foster case, for instance, has been
investigated by 5 different official bodies.  All concluded that his death was
a suicide.  But his death is one of those commonly cited on the list.  I think
it is remarkable that adults of  mature judgment are sometimes taken in by
this false logic.  But we have perhaps discussed this topic enough.  If Mr.
Farber will quit trying to falsely claim that the thesis was suppressed, then
I will quit disagreeing with him.  
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