From a University of Tennessee press release: Former VP Gore to Receive Honorary Doctorate from UT Knoxville
KNOXVILLE — Former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore will be honored by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with only the third honorary degree granted by the campus. The degree was approved by the UT Board of Trustees at their meeting Feb 26th.
Gore will receive the degree — an Honorary Doctor of Laws and Humane Letters in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology — at the spring commencement exercises of the College of Arts and Sciences on May 14. He will be the featured speaker at the ceremony, addressing graduates and their families along with the gathered faculty.
“Vice President Gore’s career has been marked by visionary leadership, and his work has quite literally changed our planet for the better,” said UT Knoxville Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. “He is among the most accomplished and respected Tennesseans in history, and it is fitting that he should be honored by the flagship education institution of his home state.”
Gore, whose career in public service and business has spanned four decades, is currently chairman of Current TV, an Emmy-award-winning, independently owned cable and satellite television nonfiction network for young people based on viewer-created content and citizen journalism. He also serves as chairman of Generation Investment Management, a firm that is focused on a new approach to sustainable investing.
Gore’s appreciation and personal interest in the institution of higher education is apparent as he serves as faculty member/visiting professor at various institutions across the country. A UT Knoxville faculty member holds the Nancy Gore Hunger Chair for Excellence in Environmental Studies, endowed by Gore to honor his late sister. Gore also is a distinguished member of the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy’s board of directors and honorary co-chair of the Tennessee 4-H Club Foundation Inc. with UT Extension.
Gore, a native of Carthage, Tenn., was inaugurated as the 45th vice president of the U.S. on Jan. 20, 1993, and served eight years in that office. During that time, Gore was a central member of President Clinton’s economic team. He served as president of the Senate, a Cabinet member, a member of the National Security Council, and as the leader of a wide range of administration initiatives. Prior to his service as vice president, Gore was twice elected to the U.S. Senate from Tennessee, in 1984 and 1990, and represented Tennessee’s 4th Congressional District — the seat held by his father, Al Gore Sr., before his own service in the Senate — in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1976 to 1982.
He received a degree in government with honors from Harvard University in 1969. After graduation, he volunteered for enlistment in the U.S. Army and served in the Vietnam War. Upon returning from Vietnam, Gore became an investigative reporter with the Tennessean in Nashville, where he also attended Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School and then Law School.
Gore was the co-winner, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change. He is the author of the best-selling books “Earth in the Balance” and “An Inconvenient Truth” and also is the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary.
In addition to his roles with Current TV and Generation Investment Management, Gore is a member of the board of directors of Apple Inc., a senior adviser to Google Inc., and a partner with the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He is a visiting professor at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and chairs the Alliance for Climate Protection, a nonprofit organization designed to help solve the climate crisis.
He and his wife, Tipper, live in Nashville. They have four children and three grandchildren.
Gore will join entertainer and philanthropist Dolly Parton and former Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr. as the only recipients of honorary degrees from UT Knoxville.
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Now here’s the interesting thing. The Knoxville News Sentinel ran an op ed saying “Al Gore a fine choice for honorary degree” and at the same time ran a reader poll on their website.
Here’s the results as of 10:30PM PST 3/3/10
As far as I know, there’s been no effort by anyone to flood the poll, I learned about it only as I’m writing this entry. Maybe too many people saw him interview with Conan O’Brien a few weeks back. You can vote if you wish here.
h/t to Leif Svalgaard
The UT should don this honoree in a coonskin cap instead of an academic mortarboard.
Well, Mike Tyson received an honorary doctorate too. At his ceremony he uttered the funniest line I have ever heard. Said big Mike,”I don’t know what kind of doctor I am but looking at all you fine sisters out there, I hope I’m a gynecologist.” And he said it with a sleazy grin and voice inflection. In the background you could see the real Professors with bowed heads obviously wondering why the hell they gave him anything.
Lookee here:
http://motls.blogspot.com/2010/03/rss-msu-005-c-of-month-on-month-cooling.html
For those who know their history;
Dr Gorebull does have a certain sinister ring about it!
lol
Response Percent Votes
No
94% 13276
Yes
4% 683
Not sure
0% 41
johnnythelowery,
Key escrow is data encryption terminology. Nothing to do with real estate.
Roger Knights,
According to GISS, January 2007 was warmer than January, 2010. Remember what happened in 2007?
http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/gistemp/from:2007/to:2008.1
……………………….Roger Knights (14:51:26) :
R. Gates (07:06:46) :
Meanwhile, March 2010 tropospheric temps continue the near record levels that we saw in January and February…
See: http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/
and so the year is still very much on track to be the warmest year on instrument record. With solar activity increasing rapidly, and GCR’s on the decline, short of a Mt. Pinatubo type volcanic activity, we will have a record warm year. But still, I think arctic sea ice will NOT see a record low summer minimum this year, but definitely in 2011.
The skeptics on https://www.Intrade.com will give you 2 to 1 odds against that assertion. (36 cents wins you a dollar, roughly.) It’s free money, from
your POV. Why not show your sincerity and bet against them? It doesn’t look good that you skeptics won’t back up your opinions with cash…………………..
——————————————————–
Roger: Harold Roubini, some time ago, said the US is bankrupt, we just havn’t crossed the finishing line yet. So, given the dollar is worthless, it’s got to be cases of beer. And not that ‘freeze to absolute zero as it has no taste’ lager rubbish like Schlitz, Rolling Rock. it’s gotta be the real stuff: Like a case of Burtons, Hardy Hansons, Marstons, flowers,…………….
Steve Goddard (18:34:51) :
johnnythelowery,
Key escrow is data encryption terminology. Nothing to do with real estate
————————————————————
Steve: You know Al Gore. why can’t he face the truth regarding the errosion of the foundation of AGW? You know the guy-why are we still having these conversations with him as if the center of gravity on the issue hasn’t shifted precipitiously in the past few years?
Well you don’t have to get snippy about it.
Al
crosspatch (22:59:11) : Dr. of Scatology, PhD (piled high and deep)
No, surely it should be a doctorate in Taurocoprology? If there has to be any award?
I laughed too, then
Nancy Gore seat..so theres the inducement
.Whats that endowment worth per year to the uni?
also no one seems to have commented, he OWNS? runs Tv Media, = get the kiddies early, make educational? falsehoods like that Inconvenient hype, and get it into schools and educational areas.
sneaky
also
he is NOT the VP anymore, I am quite amazed at how many reports suggest/imply, he IS the current VP.
hes an EX Vp.
please some one..assure me he and Tipper? didnt have spawn
I detest honorary degrees in all fashions. Those who deserve (Einstein, Crick, Feynman, etc) them don’t need them. If they don’t have their doctorate already, anyone who has made enough of an impact to get one can get it through the normal thesis process. Perhaps an “honorary” degreee could be issued on rare occasions where the classroom training was administratively waived and simply have their work be presented in thesis form.
Those that cannot get a doctorate through normal means should not be awarded it via administrative fiat. The title of Doctor, whether medical or philisophical, is a badge of honor and pride for everyone that earns it. I sacrificed my dreams of that title in order to support to my family, but under no circumstances should anyone claim it undeservedly.
P.S. He flunked out of Divinity School and started his own religion.
It is to be hoped that more of this occurs and finally his head will swell so much it will explode. End of an ending and the rest of us can get on with life on planet Earth.
Would you like to know how far back this interference of gov. into education goes? In 1974 I graduated from the University of Tenn College of Dentistry. I then went to work for the University as an Instructor on the clinical floor supervising dental students work. In 1973 the Federal Gov started providing increased funding for all the healthcare schools….medical, dental, and pharmacy……the deal was….stop flunking out students. They did ….and what I saw in the character of inept and untalented students that were graduated onto the public would give you pause! I saw this throughout my thirty year private practice career.
Sincerely,
Dr Jack Bailey….DDS, pilot, and 17 year climate science student
PS….what Al Gore, in my professional opinion has done, is crimminal !
http://www.niuniversity.org/
From a friend in a foreign country who worked at NOAA in the 1960’s
“I will send my Al Gore message in TWO PARTS.
This is PART ONE: Preliminary
Gore was a new arrival in the US House in 1978 when (XXXXX) knew him. He knew Government funding practices inside and out. His dad was Al Gore Senior.
Conclusion: Al Gore Junior knew and he used Cold War Government funding practices with great ease. Gore is a relic of Cold War funding practices. Al Gore Junior will never tell you what he is doing or why or how. The only thing you know for sure is that what he says is NOT what he is doing. That was the Cold War. We called it Blue Sky. You took available money and you did as you pleased.
The Cold War was a time of very very very rapid electronic development. Government funding simply could not target any given program area. We never did the same thing twice. And certainly we never waited for the Congress to appropriate the money.
I tell you all that because that is still very much the way government funding works. The DOD money pushes the frontier of technological innovation at the speed of light.
With that in mind Al Gore rescued the DOD funded ARPA Net. He made it civilian. What you know today as the Inter Net started as the ARPA Net. Al Gore kept the DOD funding in place and did his thing. I am sure there are no official documents that tell you anything. That was the Cold War. There are also no official documents to tell you about the preliminary work that was done or how it was done to create the ARPA Net. It started in Boulder. I was in Boulder 19XX-19XX. No names please. The ARPA Net was one of several things that came as a consequence of spin off from the arrival of a rather stable, rather small atomic clock and the miniaturization of electronics.
Anyone who believes anything Al Gore says has to be crazy. He goes where the money is and he does his thing.
Take care.” XOXO
PART TWO of TWO.
Al Gore again.
Al Gore takes existing DOD money for civilian use.
The civilian space program started with the IGY International Geophysical Year 1957-1958 by taking large amounts of existing DOD money for civilian use.
Yesterday I talked about Al Gore taking large amounts of DOD money for civilian use, the InterNet.
That he did when he first arrived in the House in 1978.
My best guess for today would be that Al Gore has not changed. Al Gore is taking large amounts of DOD money for civilian use.
The civilian program he is funding by taking large amounts of DOD money is the IPY International Polar Year 2007-2008.
No. He has no idea where the money goes.
He knows you cannot control government funding.
He just throws DOD money at civilian science.
The reason I jumped in here to use the computer is the cold temperature reported for Moscow.
Did you notice it.
Away I go.?”
I get by with a little help from my friends.
UT Trustee Doug Horne used to be the Democrat State Party Chairman in Tennessee. He’s the guy you see praising Gore and probably the guy who pushed for this.
Before Gore enriched himself with warming-hoax profit and got his own plane, he used to fly around gratis on Doug Horne’s private plane.
20th mar 2010:maybe gore could be offered an honorary degree from penn too.
the democratic marine.