| Are all viruses male? Best find our before the ceremony. |
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| He said that he represented the University of Chicago. He didn't want to cause any embarrassment to his institution. He made that request in an e-mail of January 2003, which is still in my computer system. I called him again in July 2004 and we had another brief conversation. He made it clear then that he still wasn't particularly happy with the situation that had arisen. More recently when I tried to call him, he hung up. [ 2 ] Organizational Constraint His reaction was, if you will, an example of the Law of Organizational Constraint by David Gaus. It is a very simple law. It states that: In any biological organization or any human social organization, the components or the individuals are constrained. That's because the components must fit together or work together in some manner. (In my thinking the same law also applies to any machine built by humans.) And, as I see it, that rule applies across a vast spectrum of organizational magnitude. On the microscopic level, it applies to genes--and also to viruses when integrated as components of genomes. On a larger scale, it applies to the people that I try to deal with in businesses and other organizations. Organizational constraint explains why business people or government people say inane things when one tries talking to them on the phone. They are constrained from talking sense. And, on the next higher level, businesses themselves are constrained, as parts of an economic sector or as parts of the whole economy. On the largest scale I can think of offhand, countries are constrained within the organizational framework of the United Nations. And Shneewind felt constrained because he was part of the UChicago organization. One factor in particular: UChicago is an integral part of that vast sprawling perversity known as the "City of Chicago." There seem to be those within the Chicago business community who consider me anathema. Why? For many years I've been an advocate of space colonization. Space colonization played a part in the resolution of the Cold War in the late '80s, and I was gratified to later note that I seem to have played a positive role in that myself. That was by means of my contacts with the popular media. That story is told in another article on this site. Now, under the heading of "space colonization" are two possibilities for developing pollution-free energy to replace oil and coal. The founder of the UChicago was the founder also of Amoco, which is now part of BP-Amoco. BP opposes the development of energy from space. I haven't been able to determine whether or not the university owns any BP stock. But that's one possible explanation for Dr. Schneewind's later failure to communicate. Mr. Larry Arbeiter was the Director of Communications at Chicago when i first talked to Dr. Schneewind. Larry later did his best to downplay the significance of my notions regarding virus gender. He did that in e-mails and telephone calls between us. He accused me of various misdeeds and improprieties. When I was younger I Itried conducting a business in Chicago and received similar treatment from the city at large. The city's tendency to frustrate and defame me was so striking to outside observers that my situation became the basis for the 1984 movie, Dr. Detroit. That movie is discussed elsewhere on this site. But back to Larry. If one isn't willing to address a basic issue, there's only so much one can do on the level of "communications." And, for that reason, administrators often tend to expect too much from the communications or "media relations" department. In 2007 Larry left UChicago and took a new job at the URochester. While he denied it, when I spoke to him later, I think the business-versus science conflict I posed for Chicago may have been a factor. I also seem to have played a role in the retirement of Laura Gruen from the alumni office at Chicago. The story there was slightly different and illustrates that academic infighting can get mean sometimes. Part of my background is that I published an analysis of Social Security demographics in 1981. That analysis was plagiarized in 1982 by Alan Greenspan. The full story is told elsewhere on this web site. In 2007 I learned that "Greenspan" is actually a variation of "Gruen." My friends at UChicago appointed Laura to handle my relations with the university and she did everything she could to cause big problems. There are, for me, some unanswered questions about Laura. I think the most likely thing is that here real last name was actually "Greenspan" and that she used "Gruen" in order to try to keep me in the dark about her real name. I've often dealt with the relations of well-know people who've popped into and out of my life, and have noticed that they've often employed minor strategems of that kind. Her "Gruen" signature from a letter she sent me in 2005 is shown at left. Given that "Greenspan" and "Gruen" aren't common names, it was likely that my good old alma mater had done that to me deliberately. The reader may view the inspiring Gruen/Greenspan genealogy by clicking left. As a villainess, Laura was almost the equal of the despicable "Mom" in Doctor Detroit. The full story of Alan Greenspan's corruption will eventually be told, but this isn't the time or place. I might mention, though, that Indiana University has, at the time of this writing, a person on its faculty whose name was "Kalman Greenspan," and who appeared to be either deceased or non-existent. It seemed to be ghost employment. Greenspan was also the author of the subprime mortgage mess of 2007. His ultimate goal, while in office, seems to have been to make money meaningless as a medium of exchange. That he'd made remarkable strides toward that goal was demonstrated shortly after he'd left office and was himself paid a reported $8 million for a book deal. And, at the UChicago, money is seemingly being used to retard the progress of science. Two well qualified microbiologists there have agreed that all viruses are male. Any statement that categorical can't help but be significant. Nevertheless, the university is doing what it can to obliterate the whole story. But enough of such sordid matters. In 2003 my main thought was that Schneewind's first reaction had been correct as far as virus science went. As an alumnus, I told him, I also represented the University of Chicago. "Fair enough," he responded. And he never tried to amend or retract his initial statement to say that something else regarding viruses was true. So I thought I had what I needed and, after a conversation with Mr. Russ Herron of the legal department at Chicago, I proceeded full speed ahead. Since Schneewind was feeling some discomfort, I made a donation to the University of Chicago in his name--as a way of compensating for any trouble I might have caused. And I was soon sending e-mails to microbiologists all over the country and to a few outside the US. Some of my e-mails quoted Schneewind, as he is quoted above. As mentioned, I'd first suggested that all viruses are male in 1994. Part of my initial effort had been a letter to Science which wasn't published. From their perspective, I may have lacked a proper institutional affiliation. As my profession was publishing, however, I had resources of my own. In Larry Arbeiter's view, "self-publishing" was a shameless act; but, to be techinical about it, today's academics don't actually publish articles. Not usually. They send their articles to journal publishing companies, which then do the actual publishing. As I began to expand on the virus idea and as world events unfolded, I also expanded from my orginal motivation for publishing. For viruses, sex and agression are the same thing: a virus must invade a cell in order to reproduce. Are human beings that much different? Perhaps not. While there's war in Iraq, perhaps issues involving sex and reproduction are helping to fuel the conflict. And I'd seen how science had helped resolve the Cold War. Perhaps, I thought, rearguing basic sexual concepts--and using a proper scientific basis--might also produce a calming result on present hostilities. My further thoughts on this may be found in section 7 of this article. [ 3 ] A Harvard microbiologist On February 5, 2003, I received an e-mail from a Harvard microbiologist, Dr. Ronald Desrosiers. Dr. Desrosiers wrote that, "All viruses are female because their receptor binding sites are located recessed in a cavity." CONTINUE |
| m Below: " . . . Shneewind felt constrained because he was part of the UChicago organization. " m |
| Notes on: space oolinization, global warming, and the Cold War |
| "BP" stands for :"Burn all the Petroleum!" |
| " organizational constraint ! |
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