Paging James Nicoll!

[mmcirvin]

On the overrepresentation of engineers among violent Islamist radicals (the PDF is here).

Look at Figure 4 in the paper. Granted that their sample size is small, anyone familiar with Engineer's Syndrome still only gets one guess at what type of engineering has the highest bar. You may well be able to guess number two as well.

Comments

[pompe.livejournal.com]

I thought the second-rated type would be the first-rated one.

[brooksmoses]

Well, those proportions in figure 4 aren't that far off of the proportions of people with those various degrees; it would be interesting to see any comparisons that might have come out of looking at proportions in the population that these people appear to be drawn from.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was a bit of a cheap shot.

[graydon.livejournal.com]

ha ha, indeed!

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

James reminds us that I should credit Bruce Salem (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/02/the_salem_hypothesis.php) as well: he noticed long ago that creationists identifying as scientists or as scientifically trained usually had engineering degrees.

In discussions of these phenomena, engineers often become offended. To be perfectly clear, I'm aware that the vast majority of engineers are not violently bonkers, and most of them are not even into bizarre crackpotisms. (I'd probably be counted as "engineer, computer-related" by the methodology of some parts of this paper, though not others (being a mere programmer), and I wasn't trained as such.)

[tomscud.livejournal.com]

Ah, I'd guessed "civil" (which I think the Biblical Basis for Modern Science (ssc: yes, I read that) guy was).

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Well, Osama bin Laden was a civil engineer, right?

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Hmm, actually sources vary on the subject of his education more than I expected, given the man's celebrity. He seems never to have actually practiced as one.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...Though, of course, it was in the family.

[paracelsvs.livejournal.com]

Can we have some spoilers for those on us currently stuck on ancient computers that dare not open PDFs for fear of huge steam explosions?

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

The #1 discipline among terrorists with engineering degrees was electrical engineering; #2 was "computer-related".

[paracelsvs.livejournal.com]

Well, you were right, then, that was an easy guess.