RE: "Cleaning Up the Burke"

[john hunt <john.bass@ntlworld.com>]

Well I am not a professional but it did seem to me a case of dual standards.
There are good (most) and bad (very few now, but historically you could
include Cope, Marsh, Owen and many others) scientists and bad (most) and
good (few) private individuals.

The private collectors that have been hung, drawn and quartered are Pete
Larson and the Black Hills Institute.  They have not, AFAIK, ever been
accused of bad science and the first they knew about their financial
transgressions was when the Feds and the National Guard turned up to
confiscate Sue, which seems to me to be a strange way for the IRS to go
about its business, but then I am not a septic so it may be cultural.

The fact that the SVP appeared to be tying the ropes and sharpening the
knives was unseemly to some.

JH

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] On Behalf Of
Matthew Burton-Kelly
Sent: 10 May 2006 21:20
To: DML
Subject: Re: "Cleaning Up the Burke"

"If all goes as planned, the cleanup should restore the Burke to the 
trust and good graces of the professional paleontology community 
worldwide."

I don't see how this relates back to the debate between scientists and 
for-profit fossil hunters.  In my opinion, this issue is related to the 
permitting process (and Rensberger's ignorance of it) and _not_ to the 
quality of his research (not that I know anything about it--his 
research may in fact be bad, but that's not the issue).  The fact is 
that he _was_ doing scientific things with his fossils rather than 
collecting them without data and selling them outright sets him apart 
from those traditional 'bad guys' of vert paleo, the private 
collectors.  Not that I'm condoning his blatant disregard for protocol, 
but the issue seems to have gotten muddled somewhere along the way in 
the discussion here.

Thought I'd throw my two cents out there, now that I'm almost caught up 
with the list.

MBK


-----------------------------
Matthew Burton-Kelly
Graduate Student
University of North Dakota, Geology
(802) 922-3696
matthew.burton.kelly@und.nodak.edu
http://uweb.und.nodak.edu/~matthew.burton.kelly/
--------------------------------------------
"About thirty years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only 
to observe and not theorize; and I well remember someone saying that at 
this rate a man might as well go into a gravelpit and count the pebbles 
and describe the colors.  How odd it is that anyone should not see that 
all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any 
service!"
-Charles Darwin, in an 1861 letter to Henry Fawcett.
On 03 May, 2006, at 1:22 PM, Phil Bigelow wrote:
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