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tomk80
SFN Regular

Netherlands
1278 Posts

Posted - 09/24/2004 :  08:46:37   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit tomk80's Homepage Send tomk80 a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by EricD

quote:

Originally posted by tomk80

... who calls himself 'tkster'. He is building a website ... which is aimed at the 'true' skeptics. ...




How can anyone be a *true* skeptic?
Can I still become a true skeptic if I am skeptic about true skeptics?




I actually have no idea. But then again, I have no idea how you can become a *true* anything.

Tom

`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'
-Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll-
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 09/25/2004 :  18:53:37   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
From tk, owner of skeptictimes on whether humans are animals:

quote:
That is a controversial issue actually with biologists. For example, my professor thinks that since DNA has been discovered Humans should have their own category. Many biologists disagree and classify us as "superior" animals. I would have to agree with Dr. Held and Dr. Reinburg on this one.


Its not really controversial is it? I have a feeling he is making it up as he goes along.

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 09/25/2004 :  19:09:32   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
Who the heck are Held and Reinburg? And what do they say?

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 09/25/2004 :  20:28:25   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
He didn't say at all, I'll ask him.

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 09/25/2004 :  20:52:50   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
"They both think that Humans should be in a seperate group than Animalia. They both are biology professors at TTU. Their expertise is of course, none other than DNA sequencing." - tk

http://www.biol.ttu.edu/fac_staff.asp?tp=faculty&name=Lewis+Irving%5FHeld

I was unable to located Reinburg in anything to do with TTU.

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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tomk80
SFN Regular

Netherlands
1278 Posts

Posted - 09/26/2004 :  16:19:41   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit tomk80's Homepage Send tomk80 a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Ricky

Its not really controversial is it? I have a feeling he is making it up as he goes along.



I for one haven't picked up on this 'controversy'. Can't find anything on it either. As far as I know, humans are still safely classified as hominidae.

Besides, I never heard of the class animalia before. Does he mean Metazoa (animals) or Amniota (reptiles, mammals, birds, dinosaurs etc) or Mammalia (mammals)? Or did I miss something and did they change that too?

Have you e-mailed professor Held? Seems to me he especially researches drosophila, not human ancestry lines. Reinburg also gave no returns on pubmed.

Tom

`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'
-Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll-
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Siberia
SFN Addict

Brazil
2322 Posts

Posted - 09/26/2004 :  16:23:21   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Siberia's Homepage  Send Siberia an AOL message  Send Siberia a Yahoo! Message Send Siberia a Private Message
I think he meant Animalia as in the kingdom, not class. As if he'd become a whole new kingdom separate from the rest of the animals.

"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa

"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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tomk80
SFN Regular

Netherlands
1278 Posts

Posted - 09/26/2004 :  16:28:34   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit tomk80's Homepage Send tomk80 a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by Siberia

I think he meant Animalia as in the kingdom, not class. As if he'd become a whole new kingdom separate from the rest of the animals.



Ah, of course, figures.

Tom

`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'
-Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll-
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 09/26/2004 :  17:45:43   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
quote:
Have you e-mailed professor Held? Seems to me he especially researches drosophila, not human ancestry lines. Reinburg also gave no returns on pubmed.


I have tried to reach professor Held, but the email on the TTU Biology site doesn't work. I tried a few other attempts to find personal pages or other sites which may have his email address, but turned up with nothing.

As for Reinburg, tk said he left TTU 2 years ago, but I am surprised to find no trace of his work there at all. I haven't done too much research, but it seems like he left no mark there.

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 09/26/2004 :  19:27:04   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
The name "Reinburg" doesn't even appear in PubMed, which I would expect it to given the genetic nature of his alleged work. I suspect a misspelling, at best.

Searching the TTU site for "Reinberg" got seven hits, but they're all to references at the end of other research papers. 634 PubMed hits for "Reinberg," I'm not going through them all. None co-authored with Held, but then there's no guarantee they published their opinion in a medically-oriented journal.

But generally Googling for a variety of spellings of "reinburgs" and using variations of Lewis Irving Held doesn't turn up squat, either, except that Dr. Held, in the bibliography of Imaginal Discs: The Genetic and Cellular Logic of Pattern Formation, cites this paper:
Hampsey, M. and Reinberg, D. (1999). RNA polymerase II as a control panel for multiple coactivator complexes. Curr. Opin. Gen. Dev. 9, 132-139.
No help there, not even sure if it's the right guy.

Can you ask tk if he can give you a real reference?

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 09/27/2004 :  15:32:11   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
Turns out Dr. Held has no email address:

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/senate/

(Scroll down on the page)

I will ask tk, right now its seeming rather odd.

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 09/27/2004 :  19:44:40   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
Wow, it's even more odd that he's the only person in the Senate with no email addy. What are the odds?

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 09/27/2004 :  20:35:26   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
And what kind of teacher does not have an email address?

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 09/27/2004 :  21:13:23   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
Ok, now tk says that the only way he has to reach Held is in person, so it seems as if he doesn't have an email at all. But what he did give me is an email to S.G. Smith, a professor at SPC. However what is really weird is that its a hotmail account.

Ok, now it gets worse. S.G. Smith doesn't exist at South Plains College (I assume that this is what tk was referring, as it is right outside of TTU where tk goes to college). The only think I could find was a S.R. Smith, and he has his own email at the college.

Is it just me, or is something really wrong here?

Edit: It is no longer an assumption, tk has just verified that it is in fact South Plains College

Edit #2: Oh yea, forgot to mention, S.R. Smith is a math and physics professor

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
Edited by - Ricky on 09/27/2004 21:18:57
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 09/27/2004 :  22:13:19   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message
tk is clearly willing to distort facts to suit his own ends...

I have never hear of anyone wanting to take humans out of the animal kingdom.... the very idea seems rediculous.

There are probably some hard core fundies out there who disagree with the taxonomical classification of humans though.... not that their opinion has any merit.

Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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