Re: CP 1188

From: john e. cavanaugh (jcavanau@indyunix.iupui.edu)
Date: Fri Aug 29 1997 - 13:07:58 PDT


Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 15:07:58 -0500 (EST)
From: jcavanau@indyunix.iupui.edu (john e. cavanaugh)
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg3296$foo@default>
Subject: Re: CP 1188


>The title of Randy Palmer's posting was:
>
>"For you natural septics I have a natural solution."
>
>Did he mean "skeptics"?
>
>Okay Randy, would you please post a summary of your
>experiment?
>
>1) What prompted you to do the experiment? What sorts of
> symptoms were your plants exhibiting? What sorts of
> (carnivorous) plants do you have?
>
>2) Repeat for me once more the the treatment you used. How
> many applications were there? How many plants did you
> treat?
>
>3) What were the observed results? Over what period of time?
> Over how large a plant population? Did you include some
> control plants that weren't treated, for comparison?
>
>4) If the treatment works, do you have a hypothesis to explain
> the mechanism?
>
>Although it may not cost much to buy the materials for such
>a "natural" experiment, if the plants suffer then the cost
>to someone's collection could be more than they'd care to
>endure.
>
>Regards,
>
>Perry Malouf
>
>------------------------------

        As I scientist, I am a bit ambiguous about this exchange. But
remember folks, the fundamental concept is *EMPIRICISM*. Although it's nice
to see well thought-out controlled experiments which clearly demonstrate a
well-proposed hypothesis, results are all that matter. Forget the
excremental, inarticulate syntax. S***w the flat-earth, pea-braned
explanations which were offered.
        DOES IT WORK?? What is the proof? Is it reproducable? Is it reliable?
If adding baking soda to my Sarrs turns them into incredible
lean-mean-bug-eatin'-machine turbo-plants which live longer and grow
bigger, I don't care about some BLEEPing Euro-phant's ancestry. What I do
care about is that it work - or not - on someone else's plant first. Show
us the plants (SHOW ME THE MONEY!). How profound is the benificial effect?
Is it real? How many plants were treated? How many benefited? How many
deteriorated? Is this something I want for my plants?
        Let's have science, not an infomercial. And knock off the
irrelevant homolies about "2 plus 2 is 4" and all that "natural" guff.

John E. Cavanaugh, MD, MS, DABP
Fellow of Forensic Pathology
Indiana University Medical Center
Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Division of Forensic Pathology
Room 157 Van Nuys Medical Science Building,
635 Barnhill Drive, Indianapolis IN 46202-5120
Phone (317) 274-2973 Fax (317) 278-0221
Direct line (317) 278-0462



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