Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!agate!usenet
From: gsmith@garnet.berkeley.edu (Gene W. Smith)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: .aquaria
Message-ID: <1989Oct16.115545.12476@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 16 Oct 89 11:55:45 GMT
References: <20984@gryphon.COM>
Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator;;;;ZU44)
Reply-To: gsmith@garnet.berkeley.edu (Gene W. Smith)
Organization: Garnet Gang Gems of Wisdom, Inc.
Lines: 47
In-reply-to: richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton)

In article <20984@gryphon.COM>, richard@gryphon (Richard Sexton) writes:
>In article <1989Oct16.042758.456@agate.berkeley.edu> gsmith@garnet.berkeley.edu (Gene W. Smith) writes:

>>Just compare talk.philosophy with sci.skeptic. It was
>>because I *knew* what sci.skeptic was going to be like that I
>>opposed it; it was (and is, and will remain) a "talk" group in
>>"sci".

>People voted for it, passed it; they must want it there.

  People voted for Hitler as Chancellor too. A vote is not to
determine what is best, or what is right, but what is going to
happen. A winning vote is not evidence that the winning voters
were correct.

>>  Sci.aqauria will *never* be a real "sci" group.  It's not a
>>matter of only a little science discussion--there is NONE. The
>>people calling for this don't seem to know the difference between
>>talking about technical features of their hobby, such as how to
>>kill snails, and a scientific discussion.

>You can't kill snails.

  I've killed snails. I've even fed them to my duck.

>Saying there is *NONE* is a little final, Gene. You could say there
>is little, or ``not much''. You'de be wrong there as well, but
>*NONE* ?

>Suck on this:

  What follows is a scientific discussion of sorts. It is more or
less research, though not exactly earth-shaking: the conclusions
drawn are of the sort "Wow! Plants produce oxygen, just like They
say!". The general level is about that of a high school science
fair project for a kid with rich parents (Daddy can afford some
equipment for Junior to play with).

  Needless to say, this posting is not typical of the "what can I
do to keep my guppies alive?" stuff which makes up the majority
of alt.aquaria.  Once again, the bottom line is that there aren't
aqarium science people out there exchanging data, but a bunch of
hobbyists. Richard doesn't seem to know what the difference is.
Well, too bad. It's there.
--
ucbvax!garnet!gsmith    Gene Ward Smith/Garnet Gang/Berkeley CA 94720
ucbvax!bosco!gsmith    "Slime is the agony of water" -- Jean-Paul Sartre