Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2000 17:23:22 -0800 From: "Joseph Kinyon" <corruscate@vivazapata.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg533$foo@default> Subject: RE: Published and following the rules
**Caution, rant ahead**
Paul,
I appreciate your opinion. I think your clarification between a righteous
stance of "truth" and "valid", and the scientific process being a living
process in flux was clear.
Inside of the efforts of science(and its methods to be clear) in cladistics
or nomenclature of carnivorous plants are political agendas, one up-manship,
and prestige. We always hope these are without influence, but unfortunately
it is not always the case.
One agenda I feel this list-serve does for Carnivorous Plants is to
democratize the process of understanding these plants. Jargon dominated
scientific text which muddies and obfuscates the point is not appropriate,
even if it is accurate. Translation into lay terms is all our
responsibility, since it facilitates understanding which works towards any
agenda of preservation, conservation, or restoration of species (don't
forget it adds the subtle glue of community to this ephemeral group of
e-mail addicted CP-ers) Part of science is drawing your conclusions from a
hypothesis driven experiment or analysis, putting them out into the public
(print is the accepted media currently), and having the crap kicked out of
it. Check your ego at the door, and this process gets all of us to a
greater understanding of these plants. Don't check it at the door, and you
put your esteem at unnecessary risk.
So, I agree that we follow published texts, be respectful of the people who
made them, and put on big boots to kick the ideas around until they are
solid enough to hurt your toes--then get bigger boots. Science should
"subvert the dominant paradigm", even if science is the dominant paradigm.
**Attention-->Approaching end of Rant**
(this is for the benefit of you with those nifty scroll wheels on your mouse
skipping my blather, don't want you to sprain a clicker-finger)
By the way, feel free to kick around my ideas too.
It could be worse, we could be birders working out the four letter banding
codes based upon common names established by the American Ornithological
Union. A bird's common name is as established as the scientific name in
North American birding. It takes some of the poetic flexibility out of
discussing them.
Rant over and out
Joseph Kinyon
Marin Headlands
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