Re: RE: NANFA-L-- What Happens When Fish Suck?

dlmcneely-in-lunet.edu
Sun, 20 Aug 2006 10:44:40 -0500

[Irate]:

<No argument there - I don't like my money being distributed to others
in
<any manner I don't approve. Let those who want to fund fish sucking
<projects and political mailers do so with their own money - you'll
never
<hear me complain once. For instance, I fully approve of how NANFA
<spends the money I voluntarily send them.

I am one who wants fish sucking projects funded with my money, and I
pay taxes. Get your own country, ala Fidel (maybe now Raul?) if you
want to tell everyone exactly how their money will be spent to suit
yourself. I put up with the mailers and other waste in order to get
the worthwhile stuff like fish sucking projects, studies of phylogeny
and ............... .

Now, ask me how many bombs I want to buy, and how much I want Tom Delay
to fly off to Scottland to go golfing?

David L. McNeely, Ph.D., Professor of Biology
Langston University; P.O. Box 1500
Langston, OK 73050; email: dlmcneely-in-lunet.edu
telephone: (405) 466-6025; fax: 405) 466-3307
home page http://www.lunet.edu/mcneely/index.htm

"Where are we going?" "I don't know, are we there yet?"

----- Original Message -----
From: Irate Mormon <archimedes-in-bayspringstel.net>
Date: Saturday, August 19, 2006 9:36 pm
Subject: RE: NANFA-L-- What Happens When Fish Suck?
> >First -- there is absolutely nothing wrong with "knowledge for
> the sake
>
> >of knowledge." I imagine that we would not be having this discussion
>
> >via the internet if many, many folks didn't do the basic research
> that
> >led to the practical development of electric power, computers,
> silicon
> >chips, and the internet. Granted, a lot of basic research does not
>
> >prove to generate "practical" appliances for the benefit of the
> general
> >public; but, until the "Psychic Friends Hotline" is perfected, we
> can't
> >predict which will and which will not.
>
> [Irate]
>
> Fair enough, but some avenues of inquiry are intrinsically more likely
> to have real-world applications than others.
>
> >
>
> >Second -- I'm a fisheries researcher, in fact one that studies food
>
> >habits and food-web interactions, and I can tell you that we can
> predict
>
> >what bass will eat, but only with very fuzzy, probabilistic accuracy.
>
> >And when they're stocked into waters where they didn't evolve,
> something
>
> >that's happening all over the world, even our fuzzy, probabilistic
>
> >answers aren't worth a hill of beans. Further, our knowledge of WHY
>
> >they eat what they do is really bad -- the big hurdle in predicting
> what
>
> >they'll eat in a new environment. If you want to hear some good
>
> >argument, get academic ecologists going about optimal foraging theory
> --
>
> >but brush up on your calculus and dynamic programming first.
>
> [Irate]
>
> Why would one need to predict what bass eat? It can be determined
> empirically. Optimal foraging theory? Strike out the first and last
> words, and you may have something worth pursuing.
>
> >
>
> >Third -- As for "And I helped pay for this . . .": For what this
> study
> >cost you might be able to purchase the toilet paper used by the
> military
>
> >in Iraq for one day, or maybe not. You certainly couldn't afford the
>
> >various political mailers sent by our senators and congressmen at our
>
> >expense through their franking privileges. I'm not Mormon, but that
> can
>
> >make me an Irate Atheist!
>
> [Irate]
>
> No argument there - I don't like my money being distributed to
> others in
> any manner I don't approve. Let those who want to fund fish sucking
> projects and political mailers do so with their own money - you'll
> neverhear me complain once. For instance, I fully approve of how
> NANFAspends the money I voluntarily send them.
>
>
>
> [Irate] Not Mormon here either!
> /------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
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/ visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
/ consistent with the guidelines as per
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/ help, visit the NANFA email list home page and archive at
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