X-Message-Number: 29739
References: <>
From: David Stodolsky <>
Subject: Re: Timeline
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:04:01 +0200

On 17 Aug 2007, at 19:02, Kennita Watson wrote:

> To Jordan and others:  Please restrain yourself from making
> sweeping statements about people; they are unnecessarily
> inflammatory, rarely quite true, and often counterproductive
> in that they encourage replacing reasoned disagreement with
> defensive point/counterpoint.
>
> "You are [scientifically illiterate/irrational/untrustworthy]."
> Do you really want to shut down the discussion and have _no_
> chance to affect the opinion of whomever you're talking to?

While Rudi is by no means the worst offender, we do have people whom  
are so scientifically illiterate that they can't distinguish fact  
from fiction. That is not in itself a defect, but when they post  
'news' to the List they are wasting our time and driving the people  
who have little time to waste and more to offer the discussion off  
the List.

Magazines, books, and talking to people is not the way you find out  
what is happening in controversial areas of science. The only real  
option is the journals. These are beyond the reach of those without  
the proper background, but that simply is the situation. The health  
area is overflowing with misleading and outright false information.  
For a nonspecialist to make pronouncements, is simply to show poor  
judgment.


dss


David Stodolsky    Skype: davidstodolsky

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