Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!apple!bionet!agate!usenet From: gsmith@garnet.berkeley.edu (Gene W. Smith) Newsgroups: news.groups Subject: Real science groups and fake ones Message-ID: <1990Feb27.102423.20910@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: 27 Feb 90 10:24:23 GMT References: <_DW17VCxds8@ficc.uu.net> <59198@ccicpg.UUCP> <59506@ccicpg.UUCP> 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: 35 Supersedes: <1990Feb27.085308.17420@agate.berkeley.edu> In-reply-to: dave@ccicpg.UUCP ( Dave Hill) In article <59506@ccicpg.UUCP>, dave@ccicpg ( Dave Hill) writes: >If you would stop to READ the groups you'd see the difference >between the rec group and the sci group. The rec group is most >definitely a 'hobby' group. Novice fish keeping questions. I did this, and it's true. Sci.aquaria is in effect rec.aquaria.wizards, for experienced and dedicated hobbyists. It is just as much of a hobby group as rec.aquaria is, however. >The sci group is carrying as much hard science as any of the other >sci groups. How doesn't it fit into the hierarchy? It's a sci >group, they talk sci. What's the problem? This is false. In a REAL goddamn science group, there are real goddamn scientists talking about their special subject as a good part of the mix. If sci.astro had *only* hobbyists talking about their 8" Newtonians, it would be just like sci.aquaria, and it would be a "rec" group. In fact, sci.astro has astronomers, sci.physics has physicists, sci.math has mathematicians, sci.lang has linguists, and so forth for some but not all of the other sci groups. These are the real science groups, the rest don't belong. Science is concerned with finding things out. Hobbyists talk about aquatic life as a part of their hobby, but the talk is in aid of their hobby, not in aid of understanding aquatic life. Incidently, anus-breath, follow-up to "misc.test" is a game for alt.flame or talk.bizarre, not here. -- ucbvax!garnet!gsmith Gene Ward Smith/Brahms Gang/Berkeley CA 94720 "You and I as individuals can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but only for a limited period of time. Why should we think that collectively, as a nation, we are not bound by that same limitation?" -- Ronald Reagan