An Open Letter To Dr. Eric Pianka

4-5-2006 | Randal Sprinkle

[.cnI redruM]

Mine would be shorter.

Dr Dr. P.

Drop Dead!

Gracias,
redruM

[NewHampshireDuo]

Has this jerk gotten any kind of broad coverage yet?

[redpoll]

The primary support for Communism and National Socialism came from academia. Intelligence does not equal competence or moral virtue.

[TampaDude]

Ebola Reston was airborne, but was not infectious to humans. Read "The Hot Zone". I remember that Hazelton building, too. It was located in Isaac Newton Square near the intersection of Wiehle Avenue and Sunset Hills Road in Reston, VA. My friends and I used to drive by there all the time. It was demolished back in 1995. I think there is a child day-care center there now.

[MathWhiz]

http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=4720390

This article claims Professor Pianka was the victim of a smear campaign. Please give it equal creedence in forming your opinion of this man.

[.cnI redruM]

>>>Read "The Hot Zone".

It's nice living near a place that has a lethal airborne virus that liquifies your intestines, named after it.

On a lighter note, there's a really great Vietnamese place that probably serves the best bowl of Pho' in NoVA right near that place on Worldgate Dr.

[RegulatorCountry]

"Intelligence does not equal competence or moral virtue."

Education doesn't always equate with intelligence, either.

[hdstmf]

The good professor should be the first person to sacrifice himself for population reduction. Leadership by example...

[Clioman]

It certainly would be good to have a balanced view of what supposedly happened...but an account by a student who attended the lecture claimed that an Academy official had the television camera recording the presentations turned off just prior to Pianka's speech. If so, why? And how does that square w/Pianka's claims of being misrepresented? Wouldn't he want his presentation to have been recorded, so that there wouldn't be any doubt about what he had said?

[MathWhiz]

But the article I linked says he didn't make these claims. Do you still think he should kill himself?

[DustyMoment]

Yes, but this raises the conundrum - IF all of humans are doomed and we hasten their destruction with an Ebola pandemic (or selective flesh-eating bacteria), who will be left in the Universe to appreciate God's handiwork; the majesty of a spring morning, the beauty of a nature scene; the awesome power of a hurricane or tornado; the miracle of the birth of a new star to light the heavens??

Seems kind of silly to waste all of that on the word of a college "professor", doesn't it?

[synbad600]

Ever read "The Stand" by Stephen King?

[Right Wing Professor]

I am writing to you in regards to the speech you made at the 109th meeting of the Texas Academy of Science at Lamar University in Beaumont on 3-5 March 2006 in which you advocated the reduction of the earths population by 90%. The idea of reducing the earths population by 90% has stimulated my mind and I wish to add the following thoughts on the issue: You said your favorite candidate for eliminating 90 percent of the world's population is airborne Ebola ( Ebola Reston ), because it is both highly lethal and it kills in days, instead of years.

Most people who attended the talk said he said no such thing. So you wrote this entire stupid vanity based on false information.

[Rummyfan]

Yes it's now a Montessori school.....

[RegulatorCountry]

"Wouldn't he want his presentation to have been recorded, so that there wouldn't be any doubt about what he had said?"

One would think that an authentic record of some sort would be quite useful to this Mr. Pianka going forward, if in fact his statements have been misrepresented. On the other hand, if no such record is kept going forward, it's safe to assume that the content of that record would be inflammatory or controversial in some way.

[Doctor Stochastic]

But it's more fun to get enraged without checking on facts. Rumors and gossip are the staple of Conservative thought; just look at all the articles from WorldNetDaily. (Of course, Liberals get their rumors and gossip from CBS, NBC, CNN, and ABC, inter alia.)

[inpajamas]

"The Gazette-Enterprise quoted Pianka as saying disease "will control the scourge of humanity. We're looking forward to a huge collapse.''

It said he weighed the killing power of various diseases such as bird flu and HIV but decided neither would yield the needed results.

"HIV is too slow. It's no good,'' he said.

Pianka said that doesn't mean he wants most humans to die.

However, Forrest Mims, an amateur scientist, author and chairman of the Texas Academy of Science's environmental science section, told The Associated Press there was no mistaking Pianka's disdain for humans and desire for their elimination in the speech he heard.

"He wishes for it. He hopes for it. He laughs about it. He jokes about it,'' Mims said.

Asked about the controversy, University of Texas spokesman Don Hale said Pianka was expressing his own opinion.

"Dr. Pianka has First Amendment rights to express his point of view,'' Hale said. "We have plenty of faculty with a lot of different points of view and they have the right to express that point of view, but they're expressing their personal point of view.''

---

regardless as to whether he implied that it should be initiated or whether it will come about naturally, it is a bit unsettling if he stated "We're looking forward to a huge collapse.''

[Right Wing Professor]

"The Gazette-Enterprise quoted Pianka as saying disease "will control the scourge of humanity. We're looking forward to a huge collapse.'' It said he weighed the killing power of various diseases such as bird flu and HIV but decided neither would yield the needed results.

The Gazette Enterprise article is here. Please show me where it says anything about bird flu and HIV, or 'needed results'.

Forrest Mims is a creationist crank who harbors a major, long-standing grudge against Pianka. And it looks like the anti-science part of the conservative movement is happy to help him.

[inpajamas]

If you do a google news search for Pianka and "bird flu"
you will get over 100 results that refer to that remark in articles from the AP. However you are correct that it does not appear it the article you linked to.

The AP could be wrong, or it could be in a follow-up article in the Gazette, or the AP may have contacted the Gazette-Enterprise and and used additional information they had which was not contained in the original article.