Byung Kyu Park's Personal Website

Update (12/27): I’ve redacted the name of the sender from the post below. I meant nothing personal to her (anything sarcastic or caustic was meant to liberal socialists as a collective), and I don’t want this page coming up on the first page of Google when someone searches for her.

Among the spam/ham I get in my inbox:

From: Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxx <xxxx...@berkeley.edu>
To: gra...@physics.berkeley.edu
Subject: [Grads] Strike Schedule of Events and Supporting The Movement
        Without Striking
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:31:36 -0800

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Hi Grads,

I've attached the schedule of events for the next three days.  Wednesday is
a day of protests, most importantly a large rally on the steps of Sproul
plaza at 12.  Thursday aims to turn the campus into an Open University for a
day by having free lectures, and by faculty and GSIs leaving their classroom
doors open to anyone who wants to come in and learn.  Friday events have yet
to be completely determined.

What can you do if you don't want to strike but still want to support the
movement?

For Everyone:
1. Attend the rally at 12 on Wednesday
2. Attend some of the other scheduled events
3. Sign the petition requesting the Regents postpone voting on fee increases
until they have explored other options: http://saveuc.org/petition_fees.php

For GSIs:
1. Let your students know that they are free to strike and will not suffer
repercussions
2. Take a few minutes in class to talk about the issues facing the
University
3. On Thursday leave your classroom doors open so that anyone who wants to
participate can join you

For GSRs:
1.  Talk to your lab mates about the strike and inform them of the issues
facing the university
Also, everyone should urge the state to increase funding to public
education.  You can sign the following petitions:

http://checkingeducation.com/petition

http://www.ucforcalifornia.org/cal/home/

You can also talk to your family and friends at home and ask them to contact
their representatives to let them know they support public education.

The pressure the students, faculty and staff are putting on the UC Office of
the President seems to be working.  Since the September walkout they have
greatly increased their efforts to convince Sacramento to reinvest in higher
education.  Let's keep the pressure on and let them know that we want the
University of a California to stay a *public* university!

Resources:

http://ucstrike.com/links.php

http://utotherescue.blogspot.com/

http://keepcaliforniaspromise.org/

http://people.ucsc.edu/~bmalone/Teaching.html

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_______________________________________________
Grads mailing list
Gra...@physics.berkeley.edu

http://physics.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/grads

Wait. There’s something wrong with this email. It lacks diversity. It’s just like UCB student population—it’s lacking the minority opinion. What if, in some bizarro world, I didn’t want to support this “strike”? What if, if you could imagine the possibility of a GSR wanting to be in research lab and GSI wanting to focus on teaching, I think this “strike” is a distraction to my duties and disgraceful to the flagship campus of the University of California?

What can I do if I hold such outrageous, minority opinions? Do I not exist? Do my options not exist? Ms. Xxxxxxxx would have you believe that the only reasonable position a reasonable person could possibly take is supporting the strike.

Apparently I am an unreasonable unperson who needs to be silenced. Well, come silence me, then.

Physics Today gleefully notes:

On 18 May, however, the science and research minister’s plans to quit CERN were quashed. The country’s Social Democratic chancellor, Werner Faymann, said that the ministers of his party would not vote to withdraw, which means that the necessary unanimous vote would be impossible, and that the issue would not go to Parliament. “If an agreement can’t be reached, things stay as they are,” Hahn acknowledged after meeting with the chancellor. He added that the debate would be a stepping-off point for a close look at the country’s participation in international projects.

Indeed. It is time for Austria (and other countries) to look at these international projects from more objective, calculated point of view. “Solidarity” is an excuse statists and communists use to get others to act against their best interest. The one moral question anyone should be asking is, “What’s in it for me?”

Let’s see what’s in it for Austria. As the article notes, Austria is contributing only 2% of CERN’s budget. Let’s suppose CERN accomplishes everything it promised and more. It finds Higgs boson before Fermilab. It finds the massive supersymmetric partners. And it finds additional data and particles that existing theories and proposals cannot explain, jump starting second golden age of particle physics. It is the greatest success of the 21st century physics.

How much of that accomplishment will be credited to Austria? After all, Austria only contributed 2%. Will anyone from Austria be getting a Nobel Prize for that work, when Austria’s only contributing 2% into the effort?

On the other hand, the money that’s going into CERN is 70% of Austria’s funding for international collaboration in science. If you ever had a choice, would you rather commit a majority of your investment portfolio to become a minority stockholder in a startup company that could just as easily fail as succeed? Or would you rather commit that resource in another, perhaps smaller effort where you could at least hold a controlling stock?

Austria contributing to CERN has everything to lose and nothing to gain. Austria contributing to CERN makes even less sense than US propping up UN (US at least gets a publicity front for all those internationally-minded morons). Austria, if her leaders were not complete morons, should pull out of CERN. Solidarity be damned.