I'm sorry Robin, this is strictly between consenting bats.
Posted on 05/17/2010 11:48:50 AM PDT by billorites
A British scientist has been disciplined for sexual harassment by his Irish university for showing a female colleague a research paper about fellatio in bats, triggering an outcry over academic freedom.
Leading scientists and academics including Steven Pinker and Daniel Dennett have rallied to support Dylan Evans, after University College, Cork placed him on probation for two years and ordered him to have counseling.
Supporters of Dr Evans said the university’s actions sent a dangerous message that areas of legitimate academic debate can be deemed off-limits if certain people find them offensive for personal reasons.
Professor Pinker, of Harvard University, described the sanctions as “absurd and shameful”. He said: “It runs counter to the principle of intellectual freedom and freedom of speech, to say nothing of common sense.”
Dr Evans was disciplined following a formal complaint from a colleague, to whom he had shown a peer-reviewed article from the journal Public Library of Science One entitled “Fellatio by fruit bats prolongs copulation time”.
He told The Times that he had given her the paper in the context of an ongoing discussion between them about the evolutionary origins of human and animal behaviour, and that it had been intended to prompt debate and not to cause offence.
The colleague, however, accused him of sexual harassment, alleging a pattern of inappropriate and disturbing behaviour including kissing her on both cheeks and complimenting her appearance.
While an investigation cleared Dr Evans of sexual harassment prior to his showing her the bat fellatio paper, it found that this incident amounted to a joke with sexual innuendo, though it accepted he had not intended to offend.
Professor Michael Murphy, UCC president, declared that the complaint of sexual harassment had been upheld, and punished Dr Evans by imposing a two-year period of “monitoring and appraisal” ...
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
This will be the subject of your next viagra/cialis spam.
I'm sorry Robin, this is strictly between consenting bats.
“showing a female colleague”
Clearly no colleague.
Are we going back to boy schools and girls schools?
The real problem here isn’t that there is a bat involved. He was advocating using a corked bat. LOL
Loser.
aint academia great?
friend once told me the battles are so vicious because there is so little at stake
Your friend was quoting Henry Kissinger.
Louisville Sluggers are the most promiscuous.
The world has gone batty.
Good grief! How can a sicko society that tolerates all sorts of “performance art”, at the same time be so blasted sensitive about something like sex among bats?
Reminds me that I was recently watching the Bonobos at the Jacksonville [FL] Zoo. A whole crowd of parents and children were watching Bonobo sex in all its varieties. No one seemed to be harmed. Luckily, there were no Irish women scientists around to be offended.
Funny!!!
I never have understood the symbolism of two bathtubs on the beach. Really... I just don’t get what they’re trying to say. Shouldn’t they at least be in the same tub? Or just on the beach?
Don’t. Get. It.
:-)
As my mother would say, is she bragging or complaining?
"Sayre's law is named after Wallace Stanley Sayre (1905-1972), U.S. political scientist and professor at Columbia University....
On 20 December 1973, the Wall Street Journal quoted Sayre as: "Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low." Political scientist Herbert Kaufman, a colleague and coauthor of Sayre, has attested to Fred R. Shapiro, editor of The Yale Book of Quotations, that Sayre usually stated his claim as "The politics of the university are so intense because the stakes are so low", and that Sayre originated the quip by the early 1950s.
"Many other claimants attach to the thought behind Sayre's Law...."
...including Harvard political scientist Richard Neustadt, business executive Laurence J. Peter, statesman Henry Kissinger, scientist-author C.P. Snow, sociologist and U.S Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and politician Jesse Unruh.
Bat sex?
Were Nancy Pelosi graphics involved?
Kisses on both cheeks ? Compliments on appearance ?
Sexual Harassment is often a blanket charge to get ugly people off your back.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.