🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2mst96$6rf@spool.cs.wisc.edu>, tobis@skool.ssec.wisc.edu (Michael Tobis) writes:
=The reason many people are opposed to this study in particular is apparently
=because of a gross misunderstanding of the level of disturbance of the
=acoustic environment of the biological parts of the ocean. People who should
=know better have been jumping to conclusions about this. The problem has been
=exagerrated by many orders of magnitude: it is unlikely that any significant
=fraction of whales will even notice this sound. Both the jumping to
=conclusions and the refusal to let go of the conclusions once jumped on,
=despite their lack of substantial support, are extremely alarming and
=unfortunate. 
=
=It illustrates the lack of skill in hypothesis testing of the general
=public.

Not to mention the irresponsibility of the news media.  An editorial in
yesterday's edition of the _Los Angeles Times_, for example, contained the
rather strange statement
	The sounds would be received thousands of miles away through the new
	technique of acoustic thermography.
It's rather alarming that a major newspaper carried an editorial which, among
other errors, managed to confuse the use to which the data is to be put with the
technique used to generate the data.  It's more alarming still when you realize
that the same paper carried, the previous day, an article which should have
corrected a number of the editorialist's misapprehensions.  Apparently the
editorial staff of the _Los Angeles Times_ can't be bothered even to check
their own publication for information before spouting ill-informed
pronouncements.

=There doesn't seem to be much of a bandwagon for an outlook that is
=concerned about the environment and makes decisions rationally rather than
=intuitively. Given a choice between blind complacency and wild panic about
=the environment, the choice is not just disconcerting but also difficult.
=It's not at all clear that wild panic won't do more damage than blind
=complacency.

Agreed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.