Persecuted scientist Peter Dow @ British Science Festival, Aberdeen

Discussion in 'About the Members' started by Peter Dow, Sep 8, 2012.

  1. Peter Dow Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    215
    I made an appearance around the "ENERGISING MINDS" British Science Festival, 2012, Aberdeen with my "persecuted scientist" board, seen here.

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    The expanded polystyrene, which had been packing from a LCD monitor box, made a light stiff board to stick my paper on. The message was just hand-written but it seemed to do the job OK.

    The board message just says -


    PETER DOW

    persecuted

    scientist


    FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER

    @peterdow

    I couldn't attend any of the British Science Festival events not being welcome on the university premises by the local powers-that-be but I was able to display my board on the public street around the University of Aberdeen, Old Aberdeen campus.

    So it was very nice to speak to a few of my fellow scientists in person after being excluded from university all these years and left to rot in isolation without a second thought like the authorities were putting out the garbage or a stray dog.
     
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  3. tashja Registered Senior Member

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    Why are you persecuted?
     
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  5. Peter Dow Registered Senior Member

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    215
    Hi tashja thanks for asking.

    It's to do with my outspoken, politically-challenging character. If there's a professor or university manager or judge whose decision I disagree with, think is unfair, then I tend to speak out about it openly, publicly, at meetings, give out leaflets about it and so on.

    I have this political side to my character that doesn't take "no" for an answer from authority figures if I think they are in the wrong.

    So all those authority figures don't like having their decisions or authority challenged. They react to remove the challenge, to get me banned, excluded, silenced.

    But the main reason why they persecute me to shut me up, instead of simply allowing me to have my say, is that is is very easy for powerful people to shut up individuals in this country, Scotland. It's not really a free country.

    Either they are judges and they can just say "take this person into custody" or if they are university managers they can call the police or hire lawyers to take court action and then the police and the lawyers seem to be happy to lock me up or threaten to do so if I don't go away and shut up.
     
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  7. Aqueous Id flat Earth skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    6,152
    So far I'm getting a bad vibe. I see you promoting your name and painting yourself the victim. But when asked to explain, you merely launched into bluster. If something egregious had happened, that was your opportunity to complain about it.

    If you are a scientist at all, you should be able to collect the facts and present them objectively. So far you haven't answered the question.

    Do you care to tell us the specifics?
     
  8. Bells Staff Member

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    24,270
    He linked his website, where it is all explained in all its glory.

    Have fun...
     
  9. Peter Dow Registered Senior Member

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    215
    Specifics

    I have already tried to give readers here a link to some specifics already. Are my links not visible, should I make the text bigger as well?

    At that link you should be able to find

    • a scan-in of a newspaper clipping entitled "Former student faces prison after campaign. University: Interdict failed to halt accusations". (re: the University of Aberdeen)
    • appeal papers I submitted to the Robert Gordon University (the other university in Aberdeen) Students Disciplinary Appeals Committee

    Here I am speaking on Scottish radio about my exclusion from university.

    [video=youtube;s6sdQB1ct4c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6sdQB1ct4c[/video]

    Another occasion of persecution had nothing to do with the universities when I was jailed for 3 weeks for breach of a bail condition where I was required by a judge to attend a psychiatric hospital for examination but I refused to go, daring to disobey the judge. The court case arose because I swore at a useless police officer and resisted arrest. Specific details about that instance of persecution can be found at this link - Sheriff Colin Harris refused me bail

    Another specific example was the time I was handcuffed and locked up in a British transport police jail for a short time because I was flying the British flag in the railway station without specific permission - read the specifics at this link London bombings: I was handcuffed & jailed for trying to observe a 2 minutes silence for victims

    I can try to provide more specifics or other examples of other occasions of persecution by the state if anyone would like more information?
     
  10. tashja Registered Senior Member

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    Got it, Peter. Looks like the Royals are hot on your heels.
     
  11. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    I'd like to know one thing - what reason was given for failure to accept your thesis on MRI?
     
  12. seagypsy Banned Banned

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    You sure are political minded, proof of that is in how you answered the question just like a politician.
     
  13. seagypsy Banned Banned

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    1,153

    I second that, according to the newspaper clippings you brought no defense to court stating why the rejection of your dissertation was incorrect. You have only presented "evidence" that you don't like them because they rejected you. I am not a scientist, but could it be possible that your dissertation contained terrible flaws that if accepted would mislead future readers to believe certain practices were safe, when they weren't? You are human, right? So you are not perfect, right? It IS possible you made a mistake then, right?

    Spamming this forum with your agenda will not likely get you the support you are looking for if you cannot provide evidence to support your claim of the initial injustice that started this all which you claim to be, an unfair grade on a homework assignment. As far as I am concerned, going to forum after forum and creating the same thread with an identical starting post, along with links to promote your own interests falls into the category of spam. this thread also exists on TSF. I saw others but I don't want to give the crawlers any more link backs.
     
  14. Balerion Banned Banned

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    8,596
    He's pimping his website as opposed to sharing on the forum. You find that acceptable?
     
  15. MacGyver1968 Fixin' Shit that Ain't Broke Valued Senior Member

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  16. Bells Staff Member

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    Oh that's up to the administrators. I'm not touching this one with a 10ft pole.

    Having read his site the first time he posted a while ago, I don't think we should be concerned with the competition. Google was even more disturbing. I don't think Kitta has forgiven me yet...
     
  17. Balerion Banned Banned

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    8,596
    Haha. Understood.
     
  18. Peter Dow Registered Senior Member

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    Well no doubt they had their reasons and I respect any scientist's, any science examiner's right to give their opinion as they see it. That's never been the issue for me.

    I was suggesting at university meetings that in cases of disagreement between student and examiner the best way to proceed is by re-sit or re-examination.

    No doubt the university administrators' disagreed with my suggestion and I respect any university administrator's right to give their opinion as they see it. That's never been the issue for me.

    The issue for me, and what I can't respect is that I was banned from the university premises which is an attack on my academic freedom to express my opinion on campus as regards science matters and administration matters.

    The even bigger issue for me was then the court orders to deny me freedom of expression anywhere in Scotland - denying me the right to publish leaflets about my exclusion from the campus.

    That made the issue for me a fight for a free country and anyone who opposes a free country of Scotland where people can express their opinion without being threatened with jail for contempt of court is a political enemy of freedom, more allied with the likes of Stalin and Hitler then those leading a free and democratic country.

    Hence my launch into republican revolutionary politics to try to get democratic constitutional rights defended by an elected president - sort of like the USA's First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

    So you can see that once the university managers hired lawyers to take me to court to ban me and gag me then the issue of the thesis on MRI was neither here nor there - it was actually completely irrelevant to the persecution I have suffered.
     
  19. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    Anything as important as a thesis will quite naturally warrant a REASON to be given for it's rejection. And since you cannot (or rather WILL not) provide a simple straightforward answer to a simple, direct question, there's absolutely no recourse but to label you as a CRANK and/or attention monger. Therefore I'm quite finished in dealing with you on any level.

    One bit of advice: you seriously need to get help from a professional mental health specialist. Don't wait too long, though, they've probably already got a padded room reserved in your name. :shrug:
     
  20. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Peter Dow,

    From the information on your own website (newspaper clippings), it looks like you've been tossed out of two different universities because of your inability to get along with lecturers and other students.

    Is that correct?
     
  21. Peter Dow Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
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    "tossed out of two different universities" is correct. I have a first science degree I got as a much younger man from a third university, the University of Edinburgh. I was not tossed out of there at the time but I rather suspect if I was to go back there now I could be tossed out of there too because as a mature adult my politically changing behaviour is more confident and I am less likely to suffer fools or decisions I disagree with in silence.

    "your inability to get along with lecturers and other students" I would not agree those words. I see it more as an unwillingness of the university managers to do anything other than exclude me. For example, I had a petition signed by 1200 people, many of whom were students and some lecturers too perhaps, in support of my freedom of expression and in opposition to the court attempt to gag me.

    It was the very fact that I was gaining political support on campus from campaigning and therefore the authority of the university managers was being undermined, the system itself was being brought into question, that those officials who wanted to keep the status quo of them deciding everything with no challenges allowed which made them so determined to get me banned and shut up.
     
  22. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Peter,

    Do you think all universities would have corrupt management and administrators, or just the two that kicked you out? Bad luck, or a systemic problem, or a particular anti-Peter bias in the system?
     
  23. Peter Dow Registered Senior Member

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    There are systemic problems in the country, Scotland and the United Kingdom of which Scotland is currently part.

    By far the biggest problem which effects all of society and the economy, not just the universities, is that the notion of a civil liberty of freedom of expression is treated with contempt by the Queen's courts.

    Scotland is not a free country, it's a judicial dictatorship. If you criticise the powers-that-be, in a way which starts to have a effect on their power, that brings political pressure to bear on their authority to rule, they can react by using the courts to silence you so as to maintain the status quo.

    Other systemic problems such as the lack of academic freedom in universities or the lack of freedom in work places of workers to challenge decisions of the management arise and are maintained by the over-arching lack of the civil liberty of freedom of expression.

    If there was a civil liberty of freedom of expression then one could use free speech to criticise all the other systemic problems in society. Without free speech, without the freedom to publish, all the other systemic problems are locked in.
     

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