Posted on 04/04/2006 6:13:57 AM PDT by planetesimal
Astrobiology sounds like the stuff of lava lamps and Jetsons reruns.
Yet seven years after NASA launched a formal astrobiology research program, scientists of every stripe — geologists, biologists, chemists, paleontologists, oceanographers and astronomers — have rallied to the quest.
They've spent as much as $65 million a year trying to solve a mystery that has underpinned religion and inspired thinkers from Seneca to Carl Sagan: How did life on the lonely Earth begin? And is Earth really the only source of life in the universe?
With the help of modern tools such as the genome, high-powered computer modeling and robotics, they're finding some out-of-this-world answers, ones that may lead to Mars and beyond.
(Excerpt) Read more at palmbeachpost.com ...
Mims' account has now been contradicted by the transcripts of the lectures. In the first, on creationist Nancy Pearcey's website, the word Ebola doesn't even appear in the transcript. In the second, on that of the Seguin newspaper that broke this story, it does, but nowhere does Pianka say anything remotely equivalent to advocacy for the death of 90% of humanity.
Here's a clue: two people can come up with the same falsehood independently. And let's face it, given the massive output of falsehoods by creationists, two similar ones are pretty statistically likely.
Even the Schickelgruber was not that ambitious.
You think you can evade Godwin's law that way? Pathetic.
Why, they descended from man, dontcha know, after he sprouted from the Martian spores. LOLOL!!!
Hey Slingshot, it's great to see you again! It's been a while.... Thanks so much for writing!
How can you have the brass to make that statement when your first link is not even a complete transcript(This is how it starts...
QUOTE . . . We've got an airborne 90 percent mortality human killing [agent]. Think about that. END QUOTEand your second link results in ... "Sorry: The requested page could not be found"?
On top of that your first link has this in it....
On March 31, Dr. Pianka spoke to students and parents at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas. "A University of Texas professor says the Earth would be better off with 90 percent of the human population dead," is how the Gazette-Enterprise led its coverage of the talk.
"Every one of you who gets to survive has to bury nine," the professor is quoted as saying. According to reporter Jamie Mobley, "Pianka's words are part of what he calls his 'doomsday talk' -- a 45-minute presentation outlining humanity's ecological misdeeds and Pianka's predictions about how nature, or perhaps humans themselves, will exterminate all but a fraction of civilization."
Plus there is a cached link, since the original has been removed, providing evidence of what was stated.
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:h7mx7M7cGqEJ:brenmccnnll.blogspot.com/2006/03/dr.html+Brenna+McConnell&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1
Dr. Pianka's talk at the TAS meeting was mostly of the problems humans are causing as we rapidly proliferate around the globe. While what he had to say is way too vast to remember it all, moreover to relay it here in this blog, the bulk of his talk was that he's waiting for the virus that will eventually arise and kill off 90% of human population. In fact, his hope, if you can call it that, is that the ebola virus which attacks humans currently (but only through blood transmission) will mutate with the ebola virus that attacks monkeys airborne to create an airborne ebola virus that attacks humans. He's a radical thinker, that one! I mean, he's basically advocating for the death of all but 10% of the current population! And at the risk of sounding just as radical, I think he's right.
Thirdly, another scientist, a physicist, filed a complaint in another cached story.
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:yYHaxqirdtsJ:story.seguingazette.com/+pianka+TAS&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1
Joining the crusade, James Pitts, who recieved a Ph.D. in physics from UT-Austin, became the second to publicly chastise Pianka when he filed a complaint Saturday with the UT board of regents. He insists a state university is no place to disseminate such views.
Finally, who gives a rat's ass about Godwin and his opinions, when the opinion of a nutcase is worse than that of the Schickelgruber and you are embracing the nutcase.
The Seguin Gazette-Enterprise has been pulling their transcripts of the story. Fortunately, it's cached. Hardly surprising, it turns out their 'source', Forrest Mims, was a regular writer for the paper.
On top of that your first link has this in it.... On March 31, Dr. Pianka spoke to students and parents at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas. "A University of Texas professor says the Earth would be better off with 90 percent of the human population dead," is how the Gazette-Enterprise led its coverage of the talk.
Uh huh. And now the paper has pulled the transcript that would allow us to check.
Where's the skepticism of the media, here, Andrew? Even the New York Times doesn't consign stories to the memory hole. (Hope that reference is not over your head). Whart kind of 'newspaper' attempts to eliminate its own news stories when they are questioned?
What you have is second hand accounts from compromised sources. And now they're being destroyed by the people who wrote them.
And you have no sources. And I do have a primary source, the good professor's own webpage. He is the one that posted a comment made 2 years ago which mentions an opinion nearly exact to his opinion allegedly(by multiple independent sources) spoken last month. In addition, comments such as "Allan Hook, a St. Edward's biology professor who heard both speeches, said Dr. Pianka "wasn't so perhaps adamant in his own personal views of what he thinks might happen" in his second lecture." add weight to the allegations.
I have nothing left to defend. The story is gone. It was 'disappeared' by the people who concocted it.
He is the one that posted a comment made 2 years ago which mentions an opinion nearly exact to his opinion allegedly(by multiple independent sources)
Got a link to those sources? The Brenna M blog has disappeared. The Seguin Gazette Enterprise story has disappeared. Why?
Never mind. I've emailed various media reporters to find out.
Good. That is probably the most interesting part of this story. The Seguin-Gazette story is gone, but part of it glares forth on the cover image they post. I haven't been able to find the transcripts cached anywhere.
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