<p>What nonsense. I suppose there may be some obscure field here or there in which professors “go days or weeks w/o substantial interactions”, but that is not generally true of modern academics. More to the point, it is definitely not true of Bishop’s field.</p>
<p>I have been extremely bothered by the endless comments about how weird/unusual academics, and PhDs are. Personally, I think it is weird to sit at a desk all day doing something one finds boring and tedious, and then going home and watching TV all night. Yet, when someone who lives that kind of life commits murder, we don’t read generalizations about the dangers of being unintellectual.</p>
<p>One of the so-called experts quoted earlier stated that laboratory scientists and computer scientists are expected to be weird, isolated and cloistered. What tripe. A statement of that sort displays extreme ignorance about how modern research is accomplished, and complete lack of personal experience with practicing scientists/computer scientists.</p>
<p>On who covered up the Seth shooting, after reading all the pieces, it seems to me that the key figure here is Captain Buker (deceased). He was the lead investigator who seems to be the center figure in the dissemination of information. The state police report which I believe was the main source of information to the DA office cited over and over that the accounts of the events came from Buker and the biggest flaw in this is that somehow information about the events after Bishop left the house is completely missing and not relayed</p>
<p>I agree that he is ONE of the key figures, but I think the REAL KEY figure is the police chief (and maybe the DA) who ordered the “booking” to stop and then arranged the cover up.</p>
<p>To Dr. Leahy’s friend, I’d like to offer a suggestion. If you think the family would be open to considering it, and if his doctors think it would be safe, it might be beneficial to LifeFlight/MedEvac him to UAB Hospital in Birmingham. It’s a terrific medical facility and, in our family’s experience, capable of providing more skilled care than is available in HSV. Had we not transferred our son to UAB, I have no doubt that he would not be alive today. Dh & I used to own a house in Madison and have discussed retiring there, but he’s adamant that we will make the drive to UAB Hospital/Kirklin Clinic when we need medical care.</p>
<p>There have been some discussions about this. UAB is a fab med center. It’s actually one of my son’s top choices for his med school applications. </p>
<p>Thankfully, HSV Hospital has grown a lot in recent years and a smaller satellite HSV hospital is being built in Madison right now. UAB has purchased the medical school at HSV Hospital which I think has been part of the major improvements. There is also now a St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital affiliation at HSV hospital, which is good news for parents of children. If you haven’t seen HSV Hospital in recent years, you’d be amazed at the changes.</p>
<p>The order to stop the “booking” happen that same day may be only a few hours after the Seth was pronounced dead. Polio already was quoted that he went by what his lead investigator told him and order the release of Amy. I am not sure the DA would be informed so quickly and has authority to tell local police to release her at that time. The person that was doing the booking is quoted that he was ordered to stop and release by the chief or captain relaying order from the chief.</p>
<p>Sometimes girls ask about going into engineering and meeting guys and a common response is that the odds are good but the goods are odd. I work in engineering and most of the people have advanced degrees in computer science. A lot of the people are a little odd. Many of the new hires don’t have the best of social graces. Many of these people mellow out in their forties.</p>
<p>Many engineers will admit that they’re a little odd too.</p>
<p>I don’t see why you’re being so defensive about what others think about you or your group or your class. The ability to laugh at yourself is one aspect of being normal.</p>
<p>*
It appears that the IHOP case resulted in a continuance with no finding. I think that this is similar to diversion programs for teenage offenders - if they don’t get into trouble for a certain amount of time, then the arrest and charges go away.*</p>
<p>Last night, Judge Judy was on Larry King, and she was asked why the IHOP incident wouldn’t be on Amy’s record (It still does not show on her FBI file.) Judge Judy said that it was considered to be a misdemeanor and it was sealed, which is why UAH wouldn’t have been able to know about it.</p>
<p>umcp11: You are right to take newspaper stories with a grain of salt–not just this story, but all stories. However, the IHOP Escapade is not personal recollection, it is court record; Bishop admitted to the incident. </p>
<p>By the time you have been around for a few more decades, I think you will agree that one mom punching another one in the head at a restaurant because she won’t relinquish the booster seat her kid is sitting in, all the while screaming her name in apparent expectation that the victim will recognize her as someone of importance, is extremely weird, by any standards.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen a single story in which a personal friend has come forward to claim that Bishop is being mischaracterized.</p>
<p>The problem is that we don’t know if he’s telling the truth or if his memory is faulty (he is 87 and at 40 years younger, I have trouble remembering what I had for lunch two days ago). The person in charge is conveniently dead. That person could have said that he was ordered by the Chief when he wasn’t. Or the Chief could have actually ordered it and forgot what happened or is covering himself now. No way to know at this point.</p>
<p>MA is known for lenient judges and I see reports of people being released on their own recognizance for violent crimes and robberies. They usually stay free until they are caught committing another crime.</p>
<p>Friends recall ‘brilliant’ young man
Painful memories return for Seth Bishop’s childhood pal</p>
<p>By Fred Hanson
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Feb 18, 2010 @ 07:06 AM
Last update Feb 18, 2010 @ 09:38 AM
BRAINTREE —</p>
<p>Dan Shaw can’t drive past the time capsule in front of town hall without thinking about his friend Seth Bishop.</p>
<p>Inside the time capsule is a drawing Bishop did when he was a student at the Hollis Elementary School. The capsule is scheduled to be opened in 2076, the nation’s 300th birthday.</p>
<p>Shaw recalls telling Bishop, “We’ll all be long gone, and your art will still be in the time capsule.”</p>
<p>BCEagle, I don’t think I’m being defensive. Believe me, as someone with a PhD in biochem and molecular bio who is the first person in the family to go to school past the 8th grade, I am long accustomed to being considered a little different. My annoyance is the stereotype that academics (and related) are less social, less involved in the ‘real world’, less able to navigate the ins and outs of everyday life than people with fewer paper credentials. </p>
<p>My cs son and his cs and engineering friends are very sociable, very socially-competent people. My professor husband (economics) is policy oriented and more involved in the ‘real world’ than the vast majority of people who are not in academics. </p>
<p>I think the stereotypes are both silly and inaccurate.</p>
<p>With a pump action shotgun it’s impossible. A single shot yes, multiple shots no. According to Bishop the first “accidental” discharge went into her bedroom wall. She then would have to pump the gun to eject the spent shell and load a live round in order to be able to “accidentally” discharge the weapon into her brother’s chest. And repeat the pumping a third time to shoot a hole in the ceiling as she left the house. </p>
<p>A plausible theory is that she killed her brother with the first shot and then discharged the gun two more times to further the believability of her explanation of the incident. Very cunning.</p>
<p>I complete agree. Polio could be the mastermind and Buker is the foot soldier in all of this. If I was an investigative journalist, I would first try to find a connection between Buker or Polio and Bishop mother, if there is one, then bingo, the pieces do fit very well. If not, then there could be a wider conspiracy here.</p>
<p>I’ve been working in engineering since the mid-1980s at large companies and some of those stereotypes aren’t inaccurate. Again, if you have to defend yourself, you’re being defensive.</p>
<p>^^^Hey, I’m no longer in academics, so I’m not defending myself.</p>
<p>No, I don’t agree with you that pointing out what seem to me to be inaccurate stereotypes is the same as defending myself or being defensive.</p>
<p>Perhaps one problem here is what we think ‘weird’ means. If it just means being different than Joe six-pack, or someone who prefers to spend some Friday evenings with a book instead of down at the neighborhood bar, then I have no problem with calling a lot of academics weird. If it means asocial, unable to cope with stresses, being cloistered, etc., then I reject it as a useful description of most academics. I don’t work in an engineering firm, so I can’t generalize there, but it is not a good description of most of the engineers and engineering students I know. Actually, now that I think about it, it doesn’t describe any of the engineers I know well, some of whom are academics, and some who are consultants or work for large firms.</p>
<p>A great gesture of support for Joe and the family took place at the Ohio State-Purdue basketball game tonight. At the first time-out break, the P.A. announcer asked for the crowd’s attention and said something pretty close to the following:</p>
<p>"We have all heard about the horrific events of last Friday afternoon on the campus of the University of Alabama - Huntsville. Once again, our nation has been rocked with campus violence as three professors were killed and three wounded by point-blank gunfire during a staff meeting. One of those critically injured is one of our own, Dr. Joseph Leahy, (OSU '82, '84), Professor of Microbiology at UA-H. A Circleville native, Dr. Leahy remains in critical condition in a Huntsville hospital, with a gunshot wound to his head.</p>
<p>The Ohio State University family asks that you pause now in a moment of silent respect to honor Dr. Leahy and to wish him well during his long journey of recovery, and to support his wife, (removed) and sons (removed). The thoughts of Buckeyes everywhere are with you."</p>
<p>On the medical side, the news remains good. Joe’s fever is down from where it was earlier in the day and his white cell count remains good. He looks better and seems comfortable. He has still not needed to be placed on any steroids to combat the swelling and inflammation. Today, the infectious disease specialist will have the results of screening samples taken today, checking for any kind of infection.</p>
<p>I’d say the stereotypes are inaccurate when you are talking about biology professors. You need a fair amount of social skills to lead a group and to survive all the politics of academia. One thing that is definitely inaccurate is the thing about not interacting with other people. You can only do that in math.</p>
<p>We hire a lot of engineers from MIT and many of them do fit various parts of the stereotypes. There was one kid (he was 20) we hired from MIT that was very odd in that he had no clue about social skills or social cues. I had the feeling that he was on a mood-altering medication. One other guy that we hired acted very young. It turns out that he was very young - one of those kids that graduated at 18.</p>
<p>If you have some time, perhaps you could go through a Dilbert book at the library. There’s a lot of things in there that a lot of office workers, engineers and managers can associate with.</p>
<p>We have people that work remotely and they can work for quite some time with no interaction (other than a staff meeting via con call a few times a month).</p>
<p>We still laugh at an MIT PhD engineer my H once hired (and later laid-off). He was soooo odd. He’d pick his scabs (and pile them on his desk), refused to use a calculator, and refused to use the belt loops on his pants. He’s just wrap his belt somewhere around the pants. LOL</p>
<p>He’d spend hours and hours doing calculations on pads of paper that could be done by a calculator.</p>