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ljbrs
SFN Regular
USA
842 Posts |
 Posted - 06/02/2002 : 12:28:31 [Permalink]
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Lisa:
I am glad you let me know that you were not intending to vent mahem on Bad Astronomy. Thank you for letting me know. Then again, most of the people who post on BA are intelligent enough to pay little attention to the stupids there. Eventually, everybody ignores them completely, and the little fools continue to talk to themselves. If they use ad hominems or nasty language, Phil boots and bans them, locking the thread[s] so that all who wish may read the drivel, but cannot post to the thread (although they may make a new thread on the same subject (with different wording in the titles) and rant on from there (until they, likewise, are banned and locked).
Now, on the other hand, I need to worry about getting bounced for my wordy, pedantic, tiresome writing style. However, this can be easily ignored by anybody. I should go back to study *The Elements of Style* by the late William Strunk, et al.
ljbrs  
P.S. Anyway, this is a skeptic site. An astronomy site, intended to be a scientific site, would be less interested in fights and more in scholarly argumentation, disputation. I think that Bad Astronomer was concerned about having his own site become a big cesspool of ranters and ravers which often might happen when there are disagreements about scientific theories. In such cases, little thinking goes on.
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"Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error." Goethe
Edited by - ljbrs on 06/02/2002 12:38:04
Edited by - ljbrs on 06/02/2002 12:39:38 |
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2002 : 12:57:00 [Permalink]
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Well, with the P*p*r infestation on the old board, it was becoming something of a cesspool. Flames abounded. As I understand it, the old software Phil had made it difficult and time consuming to delete threads. Time better spent elsewhere. I'm sure the new software has simplified matters greatly.
P*p*r then showed up over at JREF as Seethruart. The folks over there are not as restrained as they are at BadAstronomy (or even here, for that matter). He didn't last too long in the face of real flamers.
BTW, yes, your posts tend to get a little wordy, but its always worth the effort to read them.
Lisa
We have enough youth. We need a fountain of smart. |
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Piltdown
Skeptic Friend
USA
312 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2002 : 02:33:04 [Permalink]
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On Friday I was a guest on the Dixon Platt call-in show on KJTV radio in Lubbock, Texas. These are the same Ramar Broadcasting folks whose Fox-affiliated TV station gave me a chance to rebut their own network's Loathesome Moon Hoax Show (LMHS) last year. The subject this time was 9-11 conspiracy theories. There was a lot of ground to cover with these, so I really didn't think the moon hoax would be discussed.
Nonetheless, the opportunity came up when, about 5 minutes into the show, the producer informed us that the transmitter link was down and we were off the air. We stayed off for 25 minutes. When we came back on, the host suggested that this was undoubtedly the work of conspiracy theorists conspiring to sabotage my segment. I pointed out that this would not have been a joke if the guest had been a believer rather than a skeptic. I then mentioned Bill Kaysing's claim that somebody had dropped napalm on a station's transmitter during one of his numerous radio appearances.
No conspiracy believers called, I guess we lost them when the transmitter went down (short attention span?). One caller did mistake my position (an "Emily Lutella") and refused to believe that there was such a thing as the Tri-Lateral Commission. There is, of course, it just isn't the world-ruling cabal that conspira-wackies make it out to be. Another caller clued me to a great skeptic site I had not encountered before, http://www.truthorfiction.com
I also got in a plug for Skeptic Friends, and another for Bad Astronomy.
In spite of the glitch, the segment was a great success by all accounts. I will be back next Wednesday and there has been some talk of making me a regular on the show.
Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.
-Robert Lindner
Edited by - Piltdown on 06/03/2002 03:14:14 |
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Rift
Skeptic Friend
USA
333 Posts |
Posted - 06/20/2002 : 09:13:26 [Permalink]
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Well, I'm back... sorta, maybe... :)
I've been lurking the past couple of days, here, at BABB and at JREF, trying to catch up.
Boy, I've forgotten that there are a lot of kooks out there...
I had some major stuff going on in my life, so took a break from debunking morons. And I thought I was ready to fight the good fight again, but after reading some of the posts over at BABB.... i'm not sure i'm ready yet... :P
"Real Patriots ask questions." Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World |
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 06/20/2002 : 15:16:40 [Permalink]
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Rift, welcome back. Sort of wondered what happened to you.
Except for one minor Troll incursion, SFN has been pretty civil. Phil's new forum format seems to have gotten rid of the worst of the trolls. If you're not up to any debunking yet, stay away from JREF. There are a couple of severely disturbed people over there.
Again, welcome back.
Lisa
We have enough youth. We need a fountain of smart. |
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Zandermann
Skeptic Friend
USA
431 Posts |
Posted - 06/20/2002 : 16:53:10 [Permalink]
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| good to see you again, Rift! |
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Rift
Skeptic Friend
USA
333 Posts |
Posted - 06/20/2002 : 19:58:14 [Permalink]
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quote:
If you're not up to any debunking yet, stay away from JREF. There are a couple of severely disturbed people over there.
I just skimmed a couple folders over there, didn't delve in too deep. The only real quackpot i saw was some edge guy showing ufo pics that have been debunked 30 years ago... ::sigh::
creationists seem to be everwhere too ::double sigh::
There was a guy that was going off about using his video camera to photograph demons in his basement, or somesuch on JREF(or maybe the straight dope, i don't recall) about the time I left, is he still around?
"Ignorance has caused more calamity then malignity" H.G. Wells |
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Espritch
Skeptic Friend
USA
284 Posts |
Posted - 06/21/2002 : 22:43:25 [Permalink]
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I think it's rather sweet that Cosmic Dave has found himself a soul mate over at the BABB (ngant17). But I kind of worry about the future if they find a way to breed. 
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Rift
Skeptic Friend
USA
333 Posts |
Posted - 06/21/2002 : 23:59:33 [Permalink]
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I just find it unimaginable that comic dave still has that moving tv camera on the rover crap still on his website... We skewered that lie last dang summer... He doesn't have anything to refute it with either since you CAN SEE the tv camera in his supposed tv footage...
How can somebody just plain LIE like that???
I know, I know, I'm terribly naive...
I'm trying to catch up over there, but dang you've had a lot of nuts over the past 8 months :P and that is with the BA having the ability to ban the really obnoxious even :)
(I left just about the time the new board went up, so it's really great to see that in effect, lol)
"Ignorance has caused more calamity then malignity" H.G. Wells
Edited by - Rift on 06/22/2002 00:00:10 |
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Piltdown
Skeptic Friend
USA
312 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2002 : 07:55:50 [Permalink]
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I haven't posted on the BABB in quite a while. It has reached the point where I literally could not say anything without violating the BA's rules. Most conspiracy theories, including HBism, are authoritarian cults. It's that simple and every HB pronouncement makes it more and more obvious. This latest drooling nematode, ngant17, is a typically arrogant and presumptuous example. His clairvoyant assumption that we must have "far right" political views was especially amusing, given the realities of the situation.
Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.
-Robert Lindner
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Rift
Skeptic Friend
USA
333 Posts |
Posted - 06/27/2002 : 00:08:01 [Permalink]
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Ugh, comicdave has gotten by dander up, and I may have gone to far with my last post on the BABB...
Gawd is he a nut... Haven't been to the ocean floor yet? wtf???
I think I'm getting like you, Piltdown. I've been away from these nuts for so long, they get on my nerves even worse now, lol. I'm not sure I can't post civilly to Ngant or CD anymore...
And good job with the rover diagram Tom, lol.
Funny how he will talk about disease and native americans but not the moving tv camera... well, sad actually, not funny.
"Ignorance has caused more calamity then malignity" H.G. Wells |
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Rift
Skeptic Friend
USA
333 Posts |
Posted - 06/28/2002 : 12:14:11 [Permalink]
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Ooops, Phil locked down another thread... and I was staying away... LOL.
So because he sells goldfish, Comic dave thinks we've never been to the bottom of the sea...
Makes sense... NOT!
"Ignorance has caused more calamity then malignity" H.G. Wells |
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Zandermann
Skeptic Friend
USA
431 Posts |
Posted - 06/28/2002 : 18:44:45 [Permalink]
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quote:
So because he sells goldfish, Comic dave thinks we've never been to the bottom of the sea...
"My family has been studying and selling ornamental fish since 1972..."
I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't read it myself! This is his experiential base???
That's an even bigger joke than his logic. |
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ljbrs
SFN Regular
USA
842 Posts |
Posted - 06/29/2002 : 19:23:14 [Permalink]
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[BTW, yes, your posts tend to get a little wordy, but its always worth the effort to read them.
Lisa]
Thanks. It is a lifelong bad habit. However, it was great for university graduate theses. It is difficult to stop.
Incidentally, I like the Bad Astronomer's insistence on niceness. It forces me (and others) to think of intelligent ways to counter some of the outright baloney. The person writing the nonsense might be more likely to correct his/her thinking in the process, and progress is achieved. Of course, the likelihood of some nut to change his/her thinking is infinitesimally low.
The better idea in such cases is to avoid responding to scientific nuttiness. Eventually, the nuts realize that nobody is taking their bait.
One of the advantages of Bad Astronomer's rules is that actual scientists visit his board to post messages. They need not worry about ridiculous attacks on their interesting posts. One can learn from these posts.
I know of at least a few astrophysicists who post on Bad Astronomer's Bulletin Board. I think that the Bad Astronomer's rules make coming there less risky.
Then again, anybody here can ignore nasty posts and drive the little pests away.
ljbrs
"Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error." Goethe |
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Espritch
Skeptic Friend
USA
284 Posts |
Posted - 06/29/2002 : 20:35:20 [Permalink]
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Well, hell has frozen over. Cosmic Dave actually claims he's going to remove "that moving tv camera on the rover crap" from his web site!
BTW. What exactly is an ictheologist - someone who studies the theory that god is a fish?
Edited by - espritch on 06/29/2002 20:36:36 |
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