There goes our cover. RR ----- Original Message ----- = From: "Dr Skip" To: "Microcontroller discussion list - Public." Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 12:55 PM Subject: [EE] from your friends at EDN... PIClist users beware... The paper: http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/users/gambetta/Engineers%20of%20Jihad.pdf The EDN article: http://www.edn.com/blog/1750000175/post/1030020903.html Quote from the article in EDN: Monday, January 28, 2008 EEs have terrorist mindset, Oxford University paper suggests A sociology paper from the University of Oxford has suggested there is a tie between the mindset of EEs and that of extreme Islamic terrorists. The paper, titled =93Engineers of Jihad,=94 was first published by the high= ly accredited university in November and saw some major news outlets begin to = pick it up in January. =93We find that graduates from subjects such as science, engineering, and medicine are strongly overrepresented among Islamist movements in the Muslim world, though not among the extremist Islamic groups which have emerged in Western countries more recently,=94 the paper=92s abstract reads. =93We als= o find that engineers alone are strongly over-represented among graduates in = violent groups in both realms. This is all the more puzzling for engineers are virtually absent from left-wing violent extremists and only present rather = than over-represented among right-wing extremists.=94 It=92s not technical skills, however, that draws engineers into terrorist = groups, according to the university research. Rather, the authors of the paper, = Diego Gambetta and Steffen Hertog, hypothesize that engineers have a =93mindset= =94 = that makes them a particularly good match for Islamism =96 one that makes engine= ers =93more radicalized=94 than people with other degrees. .... The paper argues that engineers have =93peculiar cognitive traits and dispositions=94 and that engineers are among some of the most right-leaning conservative thinking groups out there and are inclined to take more extreme religious positions. =93We could thus hypothesize that personal dispositions and style of thinki= ng among engineers differ from those of students in other subjects in ways that could make them more prone to become involved in violent forms of radicalization, not just as willing recruits but as prime movers,=94 the pa= per states, adding that its findings are not proof of its mindset theory. ... Of the engineers the paper studies, electrical were the most common, = followed by computer-related. -- = http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- = http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist