Nobel Prizes...

[Greg]

I watched a little of Obama's Nobel Prize speech. I have to say, even though I still disagree with him on the surge in Afghanistan, I was impressed with what I saw.

[Heksagon]

Remarkably, five out of thirteen prize winners were women. That is probably a record.

[OscarGuy]

Economics prize announced. First post fully updated.

[Damien]

Well, if we're looking for a humanitarian prize with a more respectable track record, how about the Sakharov Prize, which is awarded for advancing human rights rather than peace? No Kissinger there, and no U.S. presidents either.

Wow, what an honor role that is!

[Heksagon]

Well, if we're looking for a humanitarian prize with a more respectable track record, how about the Sakharov Prize, which is awarded for advancing human rights rather than peace? No Kissinger there, and no U.S. presidents either.

[Damien]

Any prize that honors war criminal Henry Kissinger for "peace" is inherently worthless.

[Heksagon]

Although I seriously doubt all six prizes will go to Americans, can someone with a knowledge of these things say how frequently three of the prizes go to a specific country's citizens?

After World War II, the vast majority of the winners of science prizes have been Americans. That is probably a fair reflection of the superior quality of American Universities, especially when it comes to research.

Eight out of nine science prize winners this year are American citizens. But only three of them are actually born in the United States.

Of the medicine prize winners, only Greider is American born and educated. Blackburn is Australian born, and has degrees from Australia and Britain; Szostak is English born, and has degrees from Canada and USA.

Of the chemistry prize winners, only Steitz is American born and educated. Ramakrishnan is Indian born and has degrees from India and USA (he currently lives in UK); Yonath is Israeli born and educated, although she too, had spent at least some time in USA, although she apparently does not have U.S. citizenship.

Of the physics prize winners, only Smith is American born and educated. Boyle is Canadian born and educated (and he served in the Canadian navy during World War II), and Kao is Chinese born and has degrees from UK.

If you classify these people by their bachelor's degrees, you have three with degrees from USA, two from Canada and one from UK, Israel, India and Australia each.

Yet, all but maybe two (I do not know for sure) did their Prize winning work in the United States. USA is able to offer career opportinities (and salaries) that scientific researchers do not have elsewhere.

[Heksagon]

I don't think that Obama is a particularly undeserving choice. However, that may be because I have such a low opinion of the Peace Prize to begin with - I remember criticizing both Carter and Gore's Prizes.

Awarding Obama certainly isn't out of line of the Committee's policy. They believe that by awarding someone, they are able to offer support to his policies, or to draw attention to some specific issue. Several people have been awarded as "endorsements" for their work in progress.

The only problem is that they awarded Obama before he really got even started. They really should have had the patience to wait a few years.

[OscarGuy]

It won't matter anyway, they're just going to continue on the anti-Obama bandwagon drowning out the more sensible, balanced voices.

[sarcasm]And I think that's because things are more true if you're the one shouting louder.[/sarcasm]

[Damien]

Funny how last week the right-wing clowns were gloating that Obama's standing with the international community had plummeted because of the Olympics decision, and now they're besides themselves saying that he is the darling of the international community.

[OscarGuy]

So, apparently, criddic has stopped posting here in favor of posting to my Facebook status update...

[Mister Tee]

I can understand the gesture the Committee was intending to make -- honoring the vast reset Obama has made to our foreign policy from the Bush approach -- but they clearly didn't do Barack any favors with this. I'm sure he'd far rather have won this 3-7 years down the line, when results were in.

I'd say the best precedent for this would be the prize to Costa Rica's Arias back in the 80s, when he proposed a peace plan to end the Nicaraguan conflict. Peace hadn't remotely come to pass yet, but the Committee was so weary of the long-running agon that they gave the prize in encouragement.

[OscarGuy]

The one article I read put a Colombian Senator as the top candidate for the award after securing the release of more than 30 political prisoners. So, there were other nominees obviously.

[kaytodd]

I agree this is more of a rebuke to Bush than a award to Obama. I see it as similar to the decision to give Jimmy Carter the Peace Prize in 2002. Many people thought he would get it shortly after the Camp David accords. But I think they had an agenda when they chose Carter that particular year. He deserved the award. Not only because of his achievement with the Camp David accords but his fighting poverty and injustice around the world after he left office. But the fall of 2002 was when the UN Security Council was starting formal debate on the Bush administration's request that the UN send troops to attack Iraq. Carter was an outspoken critic of this and he was taking a lot of heat in the U.S. for this. Many people (especially in the Bush administration) thought it unseemly for a former president to publicly criticize a current president, especially for foreign policy decisions. The Nobel selection committee was probably letting the world know how they felt about Carter's criticism of Bush.

On a more practical note, perhaps the selection committee hopes that it will be difficult for Obama to attack Iran or send an additional 40 or 50 thousand American troops to Afghanistan with a Nobel Peace Prize hanging around his neck. They may also be sending a message to the governments of Muslim nations that they want them to believe Obama when he says he wants to change the dialogue between the Muslim world and the West and to cooperate and do nothing to undercut his efforts.

But there had to be more deserving candidates this year.

[FilmFan720]

The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is turn on the computer, go to my Yahoo home page and peruse the headlines.

This one brought a smile to my lips. I love irony. The guy hasn't done anything but he sure talks a good game. Maybe this will inspire him to actually make good on some of his commitments.

He's not off to an auspicious start. The same day he wins the Nobel Prize, he goes off and bombs the moon. :p

Does that make him the front runner for the Nobel Prize in Physics for next year?