Wednesday, May 05, 2004
If you're feeling misanthropic, the internet is the place to go. All it takes is a couple of minutes to have all your darkest suspicions confirmed. I grow increasingly weary of the fringe of amateur "paleo-enthusiasts" who have access to just enough real tidbits of scientific knowledge to think that what they say is important. Don't get me wrong--this fringe represents the vital link between interested laymen and real scientists, and I was once (proudly) a member. However, when I was in their shoes, the crazy junk I pulled (while admittedly crazy, and junk) was significantly less egregious.
A particularly striking example of this came across in the past few days. Names have been omitted to protect the guilty. [Anonymous] writes:
"I'm sure all (or most) of the people on the list know about the likely
alvarezsaur nature of Australia's Rapator. We all know it would have been a
VERY big one at that (an estimated 6-metre one to be exact,as opposed to any
other alvarezsaur wich are mostly about 1-metre long)With other alvarezsaurs
being considered myrmecophages I wonder,could this have counted for Rapator
as well? I find this particular idea a tad unlikely because at it's size and
in an environment in 24-hour darkness during part of the year,I doubt
Rapator could have found enough termites to keep itself alive. So is Rapator
considered a myrmecophage or rather a predator using it's nasty monoclawed
hands to hack into larger,vertebrate,prey?"
Okay. I need to sit down for a second after that one. Let's see, we have 1. a premise based on nigh-groundless online speculation tacked on to a 2. dietary hypothesis based on nigh-groundless speculation followed by 3. completely insane, rampant speculation.
Now, I realize I'm just being a big meanie here. In the author's defense, he probably 1. means well and 2. is thirteen. Nevertheless, thanks to the rapid dissemination of information on the internet (which, for the record, I am entirely in support of), this sort of behavior has become increasingly prevalent. It is infiltrating the national meeting circuit which, in general, is detrimental to our science, even if it sometimes results in comic hilarity. I love laughing at wacky pterosaur deely-bobs as much as the next guy, but what price hilarity? As educators turn more and more to the web for information, I fear that this "information" will be taken as fact. Indeed, I have already seen a few cases where this fear has become a reality.
On a lighter note, tonight's the night...gonna be all right...
A particularly striking example of this came across in the past few days. Names have been omitted to protect the guilty. [Anonymous] writes:
"I'm sure all (or most) of the people on the list know about the likely
alvarezsaur nature of Australia's Rapator. We all know it would have been a
VERY big one at that (an estimated 6-metre one to be exact,as opposed to any
other alvarezsaur wich are mostly about 1-metre long)With other alvarezsaurs
being considered myrmecophages I wonder,could this have counted for Rapator
as well? I find this particular idea a tad unlikely because at it's size and
in an environment in 24-hour darkness during part of the year,I doubt
Rapator could have found enough termites to keep itself alive. So is Rapator
considered a myrmecophage or rather a predator using it's nasty monoclawed
hands to hack into larger,vertebrate,prey?"
Okay. I need to sit down for a second after that one. Let's see, we have 1. a premise based on nigh-groundless online speculation tacked on to a 2. dietary hypothesis based on nigh-groundless speculation followed by 3. completely insane, rampant speculation.
Now, I realize I'm just being a big meanie here. In the author's defense, he probably 1. means well and 2. is thirteen. Nevertheless, thanks to the rapid dissemination of information on the internet (which, for the record, I am entirely in support of), this sort of behavior has become increasingly prevalent. It is infiltrating the national meeting circuit which, in general, is detrimental to our science, even if it sometimes results in comic hilarity. I love laughing at wacky pterosaur deely-bobs as much as the next guy, but what price hilarity? As educators turn more and more to the web for information, I fear that this "information" will be taken as fact. Indeed, I have already seen a few cases where this fear has become a reality.
On a lighter note, tonight's the night...gonna be all right...
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