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- Path: sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!nntp-server.caltech.edu!SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU!CARL
- From: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU (Carl J Lydick)
- Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
- Subject: Re: Unidentified Flaming Objects -- ball lightning?
- Date: 15 Dec 1992 23:23:53 GMT
- Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
- Lines: 26
- Distribution: world
- Message-ID: <1glpe9INN970@gap.caltech.edu>
- References: <2933271227.0.p00168@psilink.com>
- Reply-To: carl@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU
- NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu
-
- In article <2933271227.0.p00168@psilink.com>, "James F. Tims" <p00168@psilink.com> writes:
- >I can make nothing of your last sentence. Why would anyone's skepticism,
- >merited or not, be ammunition for pseudoscientists?
-
- Apparently you've missed McElwaine's (or however you spell his name) posts that
- start out with quotations from various people expressing skepticism about
- powered aircraft and spaceflight. He then uses the fact that aircraft and
- spaceflight both ended up being feasible to defend his perpetual claim to the
- existence of perpetual motion machines. E.g., The "They laughed at ..."
- syndrome.
-
- >Are you suggesting
- >that to doubt a given theory or fact would allow charlatans to make a claim
- >such as "Scientists doubt theory of evolution." in order to put their
- >own doubly-doubted nonsense at the same level?
-
- No. It'll just be one more case they can list in the "They laughed at ..."
- litany.
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: CARL@SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL
-
- Disclaimer: Hey, I understand VAXen and VMS. That's what I get paid for. My
- understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below). So
- unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my
- organization responsible for it. If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to
- hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it.
-