With their work on a new treatment for tuberculosis, Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff, both 17-year-old seniors, became the third straight team from Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy HS to make it to the finals - but the first from the school to win the prestigious competition.
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Isha Jain, 16, of Freedom HS in Bethlehem, took the top individual prize for her ground-breaking research on bone growth in zebrafish, which could lead to better understanding of bone disorders and injuries in humans.
Hum... so I've noticed that it is "easier" to win this competition when one's project is in biology/medicine. Not that easy to carry out a physics project that can wow the judges, is it?
Zz.
6 comments:
There may be more behind this "competition" than meets the eye (or, rather, the 'headline grabbing' press releases). Why NO radio and TV coverage this year? Was Siemens AG possibly up to something? And what DID happen in 2004? Isn't Siemens AG also being charged with MASSIVE fraud around the world and didn't they work WITH the Nazis in the past? Would you want to be associated - in any way - with these guys, or even take their possibly dirty money?
Let's not get THAT paranoid, here. I bet you that if someone look carefully at the money that YOU make, one can also find morally or socially-questionable sources. So would you want to be associated with yourself?
Zz.
Zz-
Thanks, I sleep just fine at night. For one, I haven't been directly associated with the extermination of millions of Jews (BOY, that "Zyklon B" ... what a great product to have associated with your company name!) Secondly I haven't had to admit to massive bribing of government officials all over the world (including possibly in the US - which the SEC is currently investigating) and I haven't had to fire over 120 executives, managers and employees because of corruption (to date). Thirdly, I only could wish that anyone (except Siemens) would offer me 20 bucks in exchange for giving them positive press (I'd probably post it right here!) But lets focus on the $10M that Bill Clinton got from Siemens in 2006 for his "Global Initiative" after which his wife just "coincidentally" signs on to (or sponsors) a special resolution in Congress "honoring" this corrupt company (Dec. 6, 2007). What next ... a special resolution in the memory of Enron?
As a scientist, I am quite surprised at how gullible some fellow scientists are, given their skeptical upbringing. I am also dismayed and distressed that the media continues to do such a "crappy" job of due diligence before it reports "feel good" stories (remember those WMD's, VIOXX, tobacco safety, Enron, the internet bubble, the housing bubble, cold fusion, global NON-warming, the (no less than) SOCIETY-CHANGING Segway, ... need I go on?).
Who knows, maybe along with a good dose of skepticism, a little "paranoia" might not be such a bad thing for a change. Our children and the Earth might just thank us!
And you're telling me that none of the places you buy from have ever had sources from companies that practice the very same thing you're rallying against? REALLY! You also would want to tell me that you don't use or never bought any product made in China as well, I presume. Try opening your computer and look at the electronics. What, you think the US still produces most of your computer chips?
Scientists may be "gullible", but we certainly are not naive and full of ourselves to think that we are immune or perfectly clean from having some association, no matter how remote, with sources that can be considered morally questionable to some. We certainly do not go around with the "hollier-than-thou" attitude by brandishing what is "right" and what is "wrong".
It appears that you suffer from the same "superior" complex that the very Nazi that you criticized.
Zz.
Are you saying that everything counts the same? Are you saying that if you have a bug in computer game, it's the same as if the bridge you just designed collapses? Are you saying that buying something from Germany (yes, even a Mercedes) or from China, or Cuba or a Sierra Leone (say a diamond) is EXACTLY the same as MAKING the very products that kill or injure people. Are you saying that getting a free lunch from someone in exchange for doing something is the same as someone giving you $1M or $10M dollars to do it? Are you saying that for you there is NO "continuum" of ethics - just black and white? In other words, you're either a perfect saint (which is impossible) or you're just as bad as any Nazi that ever lived? Wow - that's PROFOUND!!
But anyway, this is getting WAY off topic, which really had to do originally with the question of trust and credibility - both in science and news reporting. So, if a company is deemed to be corrupt and unethical, then how can ANYTHING it does or associates itself with, be judged credible? I think most reasonable people would say that 99% of individuals and corporations would NOW be judged more credible and ethical than Siemens (even if we allow that this involves something of a subjective call). I am not a saint. Yes I make mistakes (lots of them). No I don't have all the answers. But then I clearly am not in the same league as these guys. So too, I would hope you and the majority of people who, on a daily basis - at least try (as best they know how) - to do the right thing(s). Pleeeeeeease, give me a break!! Siemens knows WHAT corruption is (they have hundreds of lawyers working for them - and I don't). Siemens absolutely KNOWS what it did during the war was cooperate in genocide. It knows it set up slush funds around the world for the sole purpose of bribing government officials (I don't have enough to bribe anyone). So, how can you equate buying something, say at a Walmart (which I don't), or maybe driving a gas guzzler (which I don't), with something like what they did (and may still be doing)? Isn't that WHY we ended up with companies like Enron and Siemens and maybe Halliburton in the first place - in large part because of complacency and leniency and saying that anyones mistake is the SAME as everyone elses?
NO, Siemens is NOT an OK company and NOT exactly the same as a Walmart, a Kmart, a Ford (that also sympathized with the Nazis), or even an Enron (that just cheated people but didn't help kill them) etc. Having a remote (and perhaps unknown) association with corrupt and unethical entities is NOT the same thing as BEING one of these entities.
And as far as science and scientists go (of which I am one), how can you even HAVE something called science, if you allow equations like 0 = 6,000,000 to be considered OK and if you are willing to eliminate all yardsticks for measuring relative differences? And - YES - there are ways of measuring and categorizing degrees of ethical (or unethical) conduct. Unfortunately, in terms of ethics, fairness and honesty, Siemens rates at least close to the very bottom (its own NEW leader has basically admitted that - he said it will take "YEARS" to clean up the company).
Finally, as far as any kind of "superiority complex" goes. Even if I felt a million times superior to you or anyone else, I wouldn't use that as an excuse to even punch you in the nose, much less, exterminate you! So, again, PLEEEEESE, lets not go there with your argument - that's pretty demeaning even to you, much less me!
But let's let some others have their fun with this thread, shall we?
Now it is MY turn to say "PUHLEEZE"!
Go look up anything about China and Walmart, etc., and there's bound to be someone that feels the same way about them as you about Siemens. So there's nothing unique here about what you think about Siemens. So what makes you think you're so special?
I have no idea why you come to my blog to air your rant against Siemens. What were you hoping to accomplish anyway? Get a sympathetic ear? And what would that do?
As a "scientist", you of all people should know that nothing should be taken simply because someone says so, and this is especially true on the internet. If you think you have a valid argument on why Siemens should be treated as a pariah, then make your case out in the public where the evidence can be scrutinized. I would not bet that you would also get people countering your argument.
Otherwise, you're just wasting your time here. If I were to buy everything that people write to me on here, I'd go nuts.
Zz.
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