mvs@meccts.UUCP (Michael V. Stein) (07/23/86)
In article <873@whuts.UUCP> orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER) writes: >After reading the critical review of Petr Beckman's work on renewable >energy sources, I am not at all surprised that he would write a >tract in the Wall Street Journal about Meselson et al's article >on "Yellow Rain" (i.e. bee feces) which shows either that he never >read the article or that if he did, he chose to totally distort >what the Scientific American article actually said. Let's review the facts here. Beckman once *summarized* an article by William Kucewicz . This article, *written by Mr. Kucewicz* appeared in "The Wall Street Journal". This article by Mr. Kucewicz questioned Meselson's yellow rain hypothesis and was based on interviews with Meselson and other pertinent researchers such as Chester Mirocha. Mr. Kucewicz's article was critical of Meselson's hypthesis and raised a number of the opposing points in the yellow rain debate. Mr. Sevener had written as if Meselson's hypothesis was proven and accepted, yet there were enough unanswered questions raised by Mr. Kucewicz that this seemed a valid point of debate. If I had realized how strongly Mr. Sevener would react when someone questions some idea of his, I would never have bothered. His viscious attacks on Dr. Beckman, for reporting what Mr. Kucewicz wrote, were diatribes that would have been legendary on net.flame. I wrote 3 or 4 messages trying to set the record straight on what Mr. Kucewicz had written and ended with saying that I wasn't going to participate in Mr. Sevener's mockery of a debate. (I, like most humble readers of the net, am not very good at dealing with irrationality and blind hatred.) Since this was a topic of debate here on the net, I assumed that Mr. Sevener would not blindly close his eyes to the evidence. I blithely assumed that he would at least read the articles in the "Wall Street Journal" to get at the truth. Instead, Mr. Sevener *still* seems to be under the delusion that Dr. Beckman is a writer for the "Wall Street Journal." (Don't we all wish we could be that certain about our beliefs, that we don't even have to check to see the nature of the opposing position?) (Oh please, please (!) let's not use this as an excuse for bringing up the yellow rain garbage again. Everyone here can read the relevant articles, and I am so tired of venomous attacks directed against the innocent.) -- Michael V. Stein Minnesota Educational Computing Corporation - Technical Services UUCP ihnp4!dicome!meccts!mvs