All too true. When I was offered my professorship I had to sign a form stating that I would uphold the Constitution of the United States, and that I would never attempt or advocate the overthrow of the government. It's the most absurd and pointless thing I've ever been asked to do by an employer. But I suppose you can all sleep easier at night secure in the knowledge that I won't be Emperor of the Americas when you wake up in the morning.

 

I recall a State of Florida Loyalty Oath when I signed on here at FAU -- there was something analogous at Colorado way back when I went to work there, and, of course, lots of rigmarole associated with Los Alamos. I reckon I'm now all conflicted, loyalty-wise. HPH

 

Los Alamos I can understand, even though I think it's kind of pointless. If only I hadn't signed that damned oath - I could rule the world (or at least Rhode Island)!

OT: Do you know who the head of the FAU Bio. Dept. is these days? I've lost touch with everyone that I knew there since most, if not all, of them have retired.

 

A bunch of years ago, my Agency decided to catch up on all the "moral" training we could think of. Of the many ways to make $$ training government folks, one of the more rampant was (and still is, I'm sure) "Sexual Harrassment Training" which eventually morphed into "Avoiding Sexual Harrassment" training (I think most people were born knowing how to sexually harrass and didn't need formal training).

Eventually, after we had submitted all 4,000 of the troops to the training, the trainers came to those of us who had mandated the training for all others. As we were settling in for coffee and stuff prior to the meeting, the trainer, in her best groveling and subjugated style commented that she really appreciated that we had mandated the training and that we had also decided to submit to the training ourselves, even though she doubted that any of us really needed to be trained on how to avoid sexual harrassment.

Ny next door office neighbor who had a sense of humor similar to mine, came into the room as the meeting was just about to start and sat down to my side. Everyone had just reached that point in between a low rumble of side talk and the total silence that recognizes that the meeting is about to begin. Bill seized the gap and leaned over to me and said, in a not so whispered tone that, by design, filled every corner of the room, "who's the hot blond running the meeting?".

 

[Temporary hijack]


Rod Murphey is chair now (of Biological Sciences -- there's also Biomedical Sciences). There are still some long-timers here -- I'm working with Len Berry on various things, for example.

[/Temporary hijack]

 

Thanks. Those names don't ring a bell, but I usually hung out with the sea turtle and fish people anyway.

 

Then you presumably heard about Peter Lutz' untimely passing. Now there was someone with integrity (to steer this back to topic). HPH

 

Sorry Chaz, integral has it's roots in the word integrate.

Could not find a derivative or adjective form of integrity.

 

Yes I did, but only very recently, and I didn't get any details. Peter was one of the greats - a true scholar in the classical sense - and one of, if not the, foremost sea turtle physiologists in the world. It always tickled me when talking to him that I was listening to a man named Lutz speaking in a thick Scottish accent.

 

Interesting, Ken. Well, these words must have similar etymologies... But, you're right; "integral" doesn't reflect the semantics of "integrity."

"Integritous?" "Integrital?"