[Egon]

Read Jurassic Park. This was predicted. By scientists (whom Chrichton used as references).

Ah, yes. The book based on the movie. (actually I think it was his second book that was written in such a way as to match the movie from the first book.)

Look, I know that parthenogenesis has been a known principle for many years-- although I wasn't aware that it was found in the shark world as well.

My glee isn't in the fact that science was wrong. Science is a process of discovery, not a collection of facts. My perverse pleasure is in the fact that, once again, people seemed to be stunned by how much they thought they knew, or profess to, but don't.

As Larry Lucido points out, this kind of arrogance isn't limited to scientists, but various religions (and the people who "people" them as well). I would disagree only on the percentage of arrogant people in each group-- I would say it's much higher, both in science and in religion.

As demecleze states: there are dogmatists and free thinkers-- and I would say in any group of people.

What irks me is that dogmatists are the squeaky wheels that get the grease. It's the dogmatists that:

• force us to spend millions of dollars on social programs that have the opposite effects they're "designed" for
• spend years promoting styles of parent "friending" that lead to generations of "feel good" "do nothing" youth
• promote germ-killing cleaners to the extent that people's immune systems are now dependent on more and stronger drugs
• preach "environmental" policies that cause fire hazards in forests due to overgrowth
• promote "cleaner" cars that cause excess pollution generating components for electric cars, change the balance of food production through over-production of the fraudulent ethanol product
• propose to spend billions of dollars preparing for GlobalWarming™-- something we didn't cause, and can't cure

All of these are the "science/religion" of today-- preached like fact-- that will be debunked tomorrow.

No one is ever censured for it. No one is ever called to account for the problems caused as a result. The same "scientists" that were wringing their hands about global cooling a few years ago, are the (fortunately dwindling) ones preaching global warming today. At least they're hedging their bets now and referring to it as ClimateChange™. Heck, there was even a movie (Day After Tomorrow) about how global warming causes global cooling!

Are eggs good for me today, or bad? I can't remember.

[dangus]

>> The book based on the movie. <<

Umm, I read it long before the movie came out. But it did read like a movie script. Some of its early content was moved over to the 2nd movie, though.

>> My perverse pleasure is in the fact that, once again, people seemed to be stunned by how much they thought they knew, or profess to, but don’t.<<

Yeah, I’m just not sure this is a good example. It’s hardly as if scientists were saying, “Parthenogenesis can’t occur in sharks.” It’s more just neat to discover something new, no?

Incidentally, go read Jurassic Park as a commentary on the failure of central planning. The movie was about biology; the book was much more about chaos theory and economics.