Friday, March 13, 2009

Bullshit or Not: Einstein Edition

On the eve of his birthday, let's play Bullshit or Not.

There's an old sketch film called Amazon Women on the Moon and one of the bits is a parody of the old Leonard Nimoy show, "In Search Of..." called, "Bullshit or Not?" with the tagline "Bullshit or not? You decide." It's a line I like so much that I've stolen it for an irregular series of posts.

Here's the quotation,

“The psychological root of anti-Semitism lies in the fact that the Jews are a group of people unto themselves. Their Jewishness is visible in their physical appearance, and one notices their Jewish heritage in their intellectual work.”
Can you find Jewish heritage in intellectual work? Do Jews write peotry differently? Do biology differently?

Surely this is not restricted to Jews. Is there a Japanese style of particle physics? An African-American style of anthropology?

So, bullshit or not, you decide. As usual, feel free to leave a single word or a dissertation.