Chess games of the rich and famous: Truman vs. Stalin, over Berlin

September 8, 2012

Not a chess game that really happened, but a virtual chess game with the highest stakes ever:

Truman and Stalin play chess, by Leslie Illington - Berlin Airlift - George Mason U image

Caption from George Mason collection: In this game Stalin‘s main opponent would be Harry Truman, the board Germany, and the opening gambit would occur in Berlin. Image by Leslie Illington. Source: National Library I of Wales.

Stalin’s pieces include “Eastern Bloc,” and “Berlin Blockade.”  Trumans pieces include a knight,  “Air Lift,” and a piece looking a lot like Gen. Dwight Eisenhower,   “Atlantic Alliance.”

I found this image at a site covering the Berlin Airlift, set up by John Lemza, a Ph.D. candidate in history at George Mason University.  I gather it was his response for a final assignment in a class — but it’s a great site to cover Berlin in the Cold War, and especially the Berlin Airlift:  “Berlin Airlift:  Relief for a city held hostage.”

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2 Comments | Berlin Airlift, Chess, Cold War, Communism, Freedom - Political, Harry Truman, History, Joseph Stalin | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Wegman Report plagiarism doesn’t bother George Mason University officials

March 18, 2012

Over at Desmogblog, John Mashey details problems with George Mason University’s conclusions that plagiarism did not really occur in  a report written for Congress that plagiarized several different sources.

If true, not only did GMU violate its own policies on duration, but on process, because they have ignored numerous well-documented complaints, including about 4 papers with Federal funding.  This process involved VP Research Roger Stough, Provost Peter Stearns and President Alan Merten, so it was certainly visible inside GMU.

See No Evil,

Hear No Evil

Speak No Evil … except about Ray Bradley [the fellow who filed the plagiarism complaint], who has yet to receive any report.

The attached report enumerates the problems that GMU managed not to see, shows the chronology of a simple complaint that took almost 2X longer than specified by policy and finally produced an obvious contradiction. People may find GMU’s funding and connections interesting, including similarities and relationships with Heartland Institute.  Finally, readers might recall the WR was alleged to be an attempt to mislead Congress, so this is not just an academic issue.

No e-mails stolen to expose the problem, but still no action against those who deny climate change occurs and will plagiarize papers to make their point.  It’s a not-pretty pass.

I suspect reporters get MEGO syndrome reading the stuff, but Desmogblog points to real problems, real difficulties in science, that deserve to be covered better than they have been.

Go read Mashey’s report and follow the links.

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1 Comment | Climate change, climate_change, College, Education, Ethics, Politics, Research, Science | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell