Indicate in the comments whether you'd like to sign this letter as a supporter of the Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticismat the Center for Inquiry (Canada). Include your name, title, and affiliation. Email me if you'd rather not post a comment. (My name is "l.moran" and my domain is "utoronto.ca")
See Shame on the Royal Ontario Museum for more information about the event.
William Thorsell
Director, the Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queen's Park
Toronto, ON
M5S 2C6
Mr. Thorsell,
We at the Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism (CASS) at the Centre for Inquiry (Canada) and its supporters were dismayed to learn that the Royal Ontario Museum will be sponsoring a talk by Deepak Chopra at the University of Toronto in connection with the Director's Signature Series: The Warrior Emperor and China's Terracotta Army.
While we fully support the concept of academic freedom, we are baffled by this invitation and wonder how it fits into the mandate of the museum to "serve as an advocate for science in the study of nature," as stated in your message on the ROM website. Mr. Chopra's new age psycho-babble may be attractive to the general public, but by inviting him to speak at the ROM, you lend undeserved scientific credibility to his pseudo-scientific claims about quantum physics, psychology, chemistry and medicine. These claims are rightly rejected as absurd by the scientific community and by promoting them you tarnish the otherwise excellent scientific reputation of the Royal Ontario Museum.
CASS will be publishing the standard rebuttals of Deepak Chopra's fanciful quackery in order to help the public understand where he goes off the rails. Our hope is to turn this otherwise embarrassing event into a learning opportunity. We are also contacting the sponsors of the event and the ROM's other private donors in order to voice our concern about Mr. Chopra's presentation. We would like the ROM to clarify how Mr. Chopra's visit fits into this lecture series, as it seems this is just another opportunity for him to promote his new book.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
The Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism (CASS) at the Centre for Inquiry Canada
599 comments :
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 400 of 599 Newer› Newest»Please add my signature.
Stacy Kennedy
Los Angeles, California
Add my signature.
Margaret A. Hug
Software Engineer
Albuquerque, NM
I only wish we didn't need a petition like this.
Jonah Horowitz
PhD Student, Mathematics
McMaster University
I'm not even Canadian, but anything I can do to protest Chopra's brand of woo in any connection to the fabulous ROM, os right by me.
Lee Picton
Ellicott City, MD
Please include me:
T. Daniel Midgley
Ph.D. student
University of Western Australia
I'll sign that as well.
Please do not elevate quacks to the legitimacy of teachers
Shripathi Kamath
Mission Viejo, CA USA
I'll sign that
Steve Gray BSc. CMA
Ditto. Good luck getting a membership out of me this year, ROM. Maybe you should try to make a few extra bucks by claiming the geodes in your giftshop have crystal healing powers.
Michelle Zapf-Belanger
Musician, proud Toronto native, and ROM attendee
Include me in.
Erik Christensen
Surrey, BC
I will be more than happy to add my signature to the list
Niksa Novovic
student - Bachelor of Nursing
Mount Royal University
Calgary, Alberta
Please add me to the list.
David Schilling
Corinth, Texas.
Would love to sign it.
Glendon Mellow, BFA
Fine Artist + Illustrator
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
Likewise, appalled at their decision. I'll sign it.
Peter Bowdidge
Oh yea!
Bart Dietrich, PhD
University of East Anglia
Consider it signed!
Tim
No Title
A mere high school student who is aware of the nonsense in his pseudo-scholarly claims.
I agree with the letter. Count me in.
John-Henry Beck
Quality Assurance Analyst
Springfield, Missouri
Lee MacPherson
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
I'll sign
Baldvin Örn Einarsson
M.Sc. Student - Social Psychology
University of Iceland
Reykjavík, Iceland
I'll sign
Baldvin Örn Einarsson
M.Sc. Student - Social Psychology
University of Iceland
Reykjavík, Iceland
I have fond memories of visiting the ROM as a child. What a pity they don't seem to be able to tell what's not good public education anymore.
Nathaniel Tagg
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Physics
Otterbein College
Please include me in the petition.
Vanita Mishra, MD
USA
I concur.
Diana L. Glennie, M.Sc.
Ph.D. Student - Medical Physics
McMaster University
My brain rots when I have to listen to Chopra lecture. You have my full support.
H. Randal
M.A. - Social Geography
University of Bergen
Norway
Aaron Luchko,
MSc Student - Computer Science
University of Alberta
Wondering out loud, why the director would want his name associated with this lecture?
Include my name to your letter.
Philip M. Urbanski
ROM employee, 1971-1984
Please add my name:
Woody Emanuel
Camden, Maine 04843
USA
Karen Burke
St. Paul, MN
Yes my husband and I would both sign this. We just renewed our memberships to the ROM but had we known this we would not have been so hasty to do so.
How the ROM handle this will determine if we renew next year.
Hear hear!
Torsten Pihl
Information Systems Coordinator,
member of The Union of Concerned Scientists, and creator of science-advocating Debunkatron.com
Count me in!
Stephen MacDougall
Ottawa, Ontario
Joshua Zelinsky
Ph.D. Student- Mathematics
Boston University
Let him pay for his own place to flog his woo.
One wonders if aynone at the ROM had actually read any of his stuff before booking. If they did, double shame for falling for it.
M. Whittaker, MD
Dryden, ON
Keynan Pratt
I'll sign
Oops, first time posting and I forgot to add our names to make it official.
Bruce and Margaret Barlow
Caistor Centre, On
Count me in. Don't support nonsense.
Luis Krause
Vancouver, BC
The above comments bring a tear to my eye. Brings some hope. I'll sign
Steve Pivato
contractor
Toronto
Chopra has no business in a place dedicated to science; keep him out of the ROM.
Christopher Mackay
Sackville, New Brunswick.
I'd certainly add my name to this most excellent letter!
Pierre Rioux
Bioinformatician and Computer Scientist,
Montreal Neurological Institute
The ROM should rescind the invitation on the grounds that Mr. Chopra's pseudoscience serves no educational purpose, and it should vet its lecture candidates more carefully in future.
Sara Stewart, BA, MA
Technical Writer/Software Tester
London, ON
Michael G. Elliot
PhD Candidate
Simon Fraser University
British Columbia
ryan cuggy
toronto/missisauga, canada
As a science educator and as a Canadian, I am horrified that a science museum would host Deepak Chopra whose only claim to fame is spouting nonsensical dribble that gullible idiots are desperate to hear (his writing is so bad it is 'not even wrong').
I hope some of the ROM staff have the sense to resign in protest.
Here's my "signature":
Lance Christian Johnson
High School English teacher and fan of real science
Martinez, California
Signed, sealed and delivered.
I'll sign it.
Linda Jo Park
Master Knitter, knitting and beading teacher. Superintendent of Knitting for North Idaho Fair.
Absolutely.
Gem Newman
B.Sc. Computer Science (University of Manitoba)
Lead Developer, Invenia Technical Computing
Founder & Organiser, Winnipeg Skeptics
I support this statement wholeheartedly.
Travis Clark
Psychology Dept Student
East Tennessee State University
Good words. Definitely include me.
David Beach
Toronto, Ontario
BSc, BEng, MASc
PhD Candidate (Aerospace, Toronto)
Add my name.
Richard A. Jahnke
Professor Emeritus
University System of Georgia
Sara E. Mayhew
Mangaka, TED Fellow
Kirkland Lake, ON
Count me in too.
David Corney, Ph.D.
Defended graduate student
Cornell University, Ithaca NY
Please count me in too!
Felipe Campelo
Post-doctoral fellow
Department of Electrical Engineering,
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Belo Horizonte - Brazil
I'll sign this.
Lisa Blackman
Burnaby, B.C
This is humiliating. i will be contacting my MP and asking for a shakeup in you leadership.
I'm in.
Lee K. Wasser
Mechanical Technician
Centennial College
I'll sign it:
Dr. Charles E. Jones
Lecturer, Dept of Geology and Planetary Science
University of Pittsburgh
Signed
David Buck
MCS Carleton University
Definitely count me in.
Kevin Skoblenick, MSc
MD/PhD Candidate - Department of Psychiatry
University of Western Ontario
I'm in. Although I'm in the U.S., I'm from Ottawa which is just down the road (in Canada scale) from the ROM.
Keep him and others like him away from respectable institutions.
Robert Carter, PhD
Associate Research Scientist
Information Sciences Department
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Memphis, Tn
Sign me up.
Through his abuse of physics, he has also abused the associated mathematics, something he probably did not realize while he was not doing any serious theoretical work. If he isn't a conscious fraud, he is at least indistinguishable from one.
Jesse Parrish
Undergraduate Student - Mathematics
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
I'm in.
Olivier Drolet
Montréal, QC
I'll sign on too.
John Cullen, M.Sc.
Ancaster, ON
Very well written, add me as well please;
Jesse Sinclair
President, PRB Studios
Calgary, Alberta
As a ROM member, I am deeply disappointed that such a top-rate scientific organization would pander to the ideas of such a quack.
Edward Wood, London Ontario
And I'll sign it! (BS, MS, and 60 years of life experience)
Bob Hagar
Arlington, TX
Please add myself as a signatory:
Terry J. Hewitt
Barrister & Solicitor
833 Carnarvon St.
New Westminster, B.C.
V3M 1G2
Luke Kirkwood
Archaeologist/Geneticist
Sydney, Australia
Please add my name.
Kim Lee
Elementary School Teacher
Yellowknife, NT, Canada
I'll sign as well:
Samantha King
Student in English Literature and Rhetoric
University of Waterloo
Thank you Mr. Larry Moran for your Letter.
Thank you P.Z. Meyers for posting this.
Richard Munn
bluecollar worker
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
I'm in.
Corey Boimer, H.B.Sc.
M.D. Candidate
University of Toronto
Please add my signature
Dave K. Welch
Yellowknife NT
Canada
Please count me in as well against pseudoscience.
Ignacio Gomez
Master Aerospace Engineer
KinetX/Boeing
Will gladly sign.
Curtis Osterhoudt,
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Shame on the ROM for associating with this snake oil salesman. I fully support Prof. Moran's comments.
Skye Sepp
Geography student,
University of Toronto
I am in full agreement with the writer of this letter.
Shame indeed. Please include my brother and I if you'd like.
Jeremy Banks
University of Toronto Student
Aaron Banks
Toronto Resident
I'll sign it.
Debbie McKay
BSc Physical Anthropology University of Toronto
B.ED OTC
Sign me up
Jackson Gilmore
Retired Geologist
Iowa City, IA
I'll sign.
Steven Bukal
Computer Science undergraduate
University of Toronto
I'm in.
Ian Watson
Hamilton, Ontario
Sign me on!
Katie Marshall, BScH
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Western Ontario
You have my full support.
Haakon Randal
B.A. - Environmental Geography
M.A. - Human Geography
University of Bergen
Norway
I've been to the ROM. I'm deeply disappointed that it's including Chopra.
Add my name - and thanks.
Donna Harris
Newsletter Editor
Humanist Association of Manitoba
Count me in as well.
Sara Shanahan
Neuroscience Student
Sign me up.
Nick Tacik
PhD student in Astronomy & Astrophysics
University of Toronto
Please add my name.
Geoff Isaac
Oakville, ON
Current ROM Member
Sign me up too.
Miles McCullough
Little Rock, AR
No pseudo in science please.
Ken Kressin
Engineer
Cannon Falls, MN, US
Dear Larry Moran,
Please do add my name to the statement by the Committee for the Advancement of Scientific Skepticism at the Center for Inquiry (Canada) to the Royal Ontario Museum, the latter which has inexplicably sponsored an upcoming lecture by the arch crackpot, Deepak Chopra.
That utterly disingenuous man has absolutely no business capitalizing upon science or the scientific community who is actually responsible for the hard work and genius expended on its flowering and the fruits of knowledge derived from it by the museum itself. ROM (as well as the University of Toronto) should be thoroughly embarrassed and ashamed of asking him to speak on their hitherto fine premises based, as it has appeared to have been for many decades, on SCIENCE, not on some obnoxious magical mysticism tour.
If this event comes to pass (and one does hope it might yet be thwarted) I would go further to encourage anyone who spends the exorbitant entrance fee to witness a talk by a cheap charlatan (however popular) to afterward vigorously demand full reimbursement from ROM, on the basis that the scientific content advertised was not delivered by the speaker engaged. ROM can EASILY argue breach of contract and failure to deliver the terms IF ROM did not realize from the START that they barked up the wrong money tree to begin with.
Perhaps that might help someone at ROM see that the promise of quick but handsome proceeds is not an excuse to swindle an imposter into a public science education establishment which owes its very existence to a baseline standard which Deepak Chopra so easily sneers at as he makes his many deposits into as many banks.
There is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for diluting science for public consumption, by dumbing it down, and especially by inviting a well recognized flagrantly hypocrite, double-talking con-artist - no matter how flamboyantly popular - as a means of "reaching out to the public"...if THAT, was, in point of actual fact, the aim of the ROM organizers.
It is despicable beyond belief. It suggests nothing less than that "public outreach" methods so many have begun to apply have long since passed the boundary of Hollywood marketing tactics definitely penetrating deeply into the territory of unbridled hokum. (The "fine art" of "whatever it takes").
Who ARE these people that science institutions hire, apparently helter-skelter (that is, on the basis of their powers of persuasion rather than upon their powers to communicate with any genuine appreciation of integrity) to 'preserve' a public interest in science?
The habit of fakery is evidently exceedingly tempting in our society, I'm afraid, perniciously so. Some strong 'medicine' must be brought to bear on it. A liberal dose of honesty in combination with integrity and courage are clearly indicated...yet these are already widely blocked by a cunning viral infection - yet nothing more than a mere social tradition - which coevolves to flout it at least as quickly as slowpoke scientists with a tincture of conceit respond (let's at least be that honest with ourselves). One doesn't need to belabor the obvious extent and extrapolation of that aspect. Especially when so much can be accomplished with a just a trivial bit extra administered directly from the horse's mouths.
Unfortunately, a strong majority of scientists support their respective institutions, universities and government facilities and whatever apparatus they construct to ease their workload - many, it must be soberly noted, are ultimately funded through taxpayer funding - because they perceive they have been relieved of their duty to help communicate their findings directly to the public.
It's a HORRIBLE situation, and academically indentured scientists by and large are blind to it.
ANONYMOUS
Sign me up.
Alec Ross, Toronto resident & York U student.
Austin Green
Undergraduate Student
University of Maryland, College Park
I'll add my signature
Aaron Pierpont, Ph.D
Post-doc
University of North Texas
Denton, TX
Signed
Kernan L. Coleman
Creative Director
Ranch7 Creative
Please add my name to the petition.
Robert Quickert
BComm
Ajax, ON
This appearance of Deepak Chopra in a science museum is an incredible embarrassment to real intellectual life.
Please add my signature to your letter.
Dennis M. Buck
Geophysicist
Houston, Texas
I'll absolutely sign this.
Paul Rocca
Toronto, Ontario
Count me in.
David Richardson, BA (Hons), PGCE
Linnaeus University
S-39234 KALMAR
Sweden
I'll sign the up.
Charles Snyder
Denver, Colorado
That nut-job got no business there.
Consider it signed. Ab Kuenzli, retired Biology instructor. I wonder if lessons in Astrology or Alchemy would follow Deepak.
I will sign it
Patrick Mott
College dropout
I have been to ROM 3 times
it was awesome each time
sad to see them waste their credibility on woo-meisters
I support this letter.
I'll sign that.
Mike Dancziger, Ph.D.
Chemistry Lecturer
Sheridan College
Brampton, Ontario
I support this letter.
Adrian Thysse
Science Enthusiast
Edmonton, Alberta
Leave the quantum physics to the experts Deep!
oh yeah ... and add me to the letter!
Co-signed
Nicolas Demers
Vancouver, BC
I'm in.
Sean Bannier
Milwaukee, WI USA
I am very disheartened to see the ROM supporting pseudoscience.
Love the ROM. Dislike Deepak.
Helen Beach
Musician
CFI Board Member
Calgary AB
Tim Rosenfeldt
Edmonton AB
I'll sign that
Eric Kanary
Ottawa, Ontario
While many scientific theories have been proven wrong, not one pseudo-scientific-snake oil-new age-feng shui-sham wow theory has been proven right.
Count me in.
Greg Pastic
Ontario, Canada
Sarah Tiefenbach BSc
Common Sense
Count me in:
Colin Merkel
3rd year Engineering Science student
University of Toronto
Count me in!
Stephen Mortimer
London, Ontario
Tristan Johnson,
Burlington Ontario
It is shame on the Royal Ontario Museum to invite Deepak the quack to give a talk. It really embarrassing to me that this charlatan hails from my homeland.
Redy Kosuri
Diabetes Center, Norfolk, Virginia
Me too
Bernard Ortiz de Montellano
Emeritus Professor of Anthropology
Wayne State University
I will sign:
Scott Reynolds
University of Waterloo Math Student
Waterloo, Ontario
I'll Sign it
Brad Thiessen
Edmonton, Alberta
University of Alberta - Mathematics
I'm in.
PJ Crepeau
Denver CO
Bjørn Østman
Claremont, CA
Send DC packing to the nearest psychic fair.
Terry Sandbek, Ph.D.
Psychologist
Sacramento, CA
I'm also in.
Francesco Orsenigo
Physicist
Hellenic Center for Marine Research
I'll go with this.
Gopi Flaherty, BS in CS, Carnegie Mellon
Murray Inkster
Vancouver, BC
I'll sign as well.
Rob Bristow
Winnipeg, Mb
Count me in too.
Kerry Kilborn
Senior Lecturer
Department of Psychology
Glasgow University
I'm in.
Jennifer Wesson
Hamilton, Ont.
As a Canadian living in England I wish to sign to show my support ... add my name
Kimberly Howlett
Cambridge England
Let's keep science evolving!
Jonn Mero, BA
Fiane, Norway
(former exile in Western Australia)
Yours sincerely, Sophie Yates and James Dalmau of Melbourne, Australia.
I'll sign.
Jonathan Lee
Undergraduate Mathematician
University of Cambridge
Add my signature to the list.
Put my name down, please.
Graham Day
Newtownards
N. Ireland
I work to convey the true character of science to unsophisticated readers. Many elements of popular culture - such as Deepak Chopra - are utterly contrary to science and distort the ability of the general public to comprehend issues in a rational manner.
Mr. Chopra's resume includes many worthy credentials. Unfortunately, his credentials are overwhelmed by the content of his writings, lectures, and interviews. Such pseudo-intellectual muddled spiritualism is unworthy of a forum such as yours.
Count me in: I'll sign.
Neil Cunningham BE MIEAust CPEng
Melbourne Australia
Count me in
Graeme Miller, B.Ed
Berlin, Germany
Alexa Joy
Student, University of Texas San Antonio
How can this be?
Have the lunatics finally taken over the aylum?
I may be 'PitW', but I will be heard.
John Flemming
Scunthorpe
UK
DN15 7SA
Rationalist, secularist, Republican (of the anti-monarchy variety).
I'll happily add my name to that.
Steven Neugarten
BSc(hons) in Physics from Bristol University
Professional Pianist
Lover of Science and reason
I'll sign:
Neil Justusson
Wollongong, Australia
Max Adelman
Research Assistant, Brigham & Women's Hospital
Boston, MA, USA
Add my name if you'd like.
Matthew Smith
Adelaide, Australia.
I will gladly have my name on the letter.
Prof. Dr. Shawn Bishop
Physik Department E12
James Franck Str.
Technische Universität München
Garching, D-85748
Germany
I agree.
Jarrad Hall BSc. Hons.
MSc Infectious Diseases Student
University of Western Australia
Signed.
Randall Fitzgerald
Author
I'd like to sign as well.
Karen D. Camarda, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Washburn University
I'll sign anything that helps to shut Deepak Chopra up.
Keith Merrick
Tokyo, Japan
signed
Murray Shaw
Solicitor
Brisbane Australia
Count me in, Dr Steve Harris, Cornwall.
Please add my name.
Michael Rule, MSc
University of Florida,
McKnight Brain Institute
Sign me up
Nigel Rowledge
Luxembourg
I definitely agree that the ROM has no business promoting magical thinking and would be delighted to sign it.
Christopher Moss MB,BS
Tatamagouche, NS
I'll sign it!
Daniel Francis Mulvihill III
I'll sign.
Michael B Burns
Ph. D. Candidate - Molecular Biology
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
May these reactions including my own be a clarion call to the ROM for natural and scientific reason.
Brian Swann B.A.
London, Ontario
Please add my name.
Sean Sturgeon
Miramichi, New Brunswick
I'll proudly sign.
Linda Jewell, MSc.
PhD Student - Plant Pathology
University of Guelph
Count me in
William Sands Ph.D
Post doc, Cardiovascular research Centre, University of Glasgow
Count me in as well.
Paraskevi Oppio
Athens, Greece
MSc. Computer Science
Student: Physics and Mathematics, Open University UK
Include me on the petition
Morgan Witthoft
Austin TX
Please add my signature.
M. A. Lachance, PhD
Professor of Biology
University of Western Ontario
Down with quackery in quantum theory! Please add my name also to the petition.
Frank Valckenborgh
Macquarie University, Dept. Mathematics
Sydney, Australia
Count me in as well
Casey Schmidt
PhD Candidate - Soil and Water Sciences
University of Florida
Christopher Harvey
PhD Student Biology
NUI Maynooth, Ireland
I'll sign also:
Derek J. Lactin, Ph.D., Entomology (University of Manitoba, 1993).
Michael Vaillancourt, B.Sc. (Physics), J.D.
ROM Member
Toronto, ON
I'll sign that as well.
Christopher J. Patriquin, BHSc, MD
PGY-2 Internal Medicine
University of Western Ontario
London Health Sciences Centre
Great article aboot a great quack
sign me up
Grant McEvoy
Toronto, ON
Charles Pettipas
Nova Scotia, Canada
Please count me in
EJ Karetny
Science Faculty, Timber Creek HS
I'll sign that.
Rose Becker
Hamilton, ON
(Enthusiastic Scientist)
I'll sign this.
Eero Holmström, M.Sc.
University of Helsinki, Finland
Please add my name to the letter. This invitation does no credit to an excellent museum.
David MacLauchlan, Cambridge UK
Signed!
E.A.Koya
Alcatel-Lucent
UAE
Please add my name to the list of those who think Deepak Chopra has no business lecturing about science when his perspective is clearly discredited so widely, and justly so.
Me,too.
Marlon Howell
Rational Earthling
Austin, Texas
Count me in...
Tim Halen
Halifax, NS
These people already have enough undeserved celebrity without a respectable museum contributing to it.
Your letter has my support.
I am deeply depressed that the ROM would even consider having a quack like Chopra be associated in any way with it.
Rick Bannister, CGA
London, Ontario
You have my full support:
Lisa Hennessey
Ottawa Ontario Canada
I'll sign.
Cathy Greentree LL.B
Simcoe,Ontario
I'll sign
Julian Tilbury MSc PhD
Plymouth, UK
I'd like to sign it too.
Takis Konstantopoulos
Professor of Probability,
Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, 20 Clarkson Road, Cambridge CB3 0EH, UK
takiskonst@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Ryan McCourt, MFA
North Edmonton Sculpture Workshop
Edmonton Alberta
I fully endorse this letter.
Earl L. Taylor, P.Eng
Brockville, Ontario
I'll sign:
John Grant
Hewitt, NJ, USA
I'll sign.
Hanna Peacock
B.Sc. Student
University of Guelph
Signed. Deepak Chopra is about as scientific as a Texas school book.
Count me in
I would like to think that there are plenty of more reputable people who would speak for the ROM.
Matthew Morrison BSc(Hons), BTeach., MEd.
Science Teacher
Melbourne, Australia
I'll sign.
Mika Hakonen
Helsinki, Finland
Count me in.
David L. Jones
Sarnia, Ont
I agree as well.
Andrew Beaton, BSc
ROM Member
Toronto, ON
On behalf of the CASS, I hereby add my name to the petition in question:
Nevyn O'Kane
Graduate Student, Dept. of Philosophy
Northern Illinois University
I'm in
John Kingman, Friend of CFI
Austin, Texas
Signing
James Cash
Engineering Science Student
University of Toronto
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