[meteorite-list] Attention Steve Arnold: Divining Iron Meteorites

From: Chris Peterson <clp_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 17:37:58 -0600
Message-ID: <5C296E066B9940349310AF59C59330C3_at_bellatrix>

Sorry, I've met Randi on several occasions, and I can assure you he is no
fraud, and he is pulling no cons. He is well respected by those who seek to
keep pseudoscience in check.

I'm hardly impugning the German people. I'm simply pointing out, as somebody
who lived there for a while, that Germans are more likely than people in
many other developed countries to believe in homeopathy and dowsing for
underground water. People are the product of their cultures; most Germans I
challenged regarding these beliefs had simply never given them a second
thought. Once they did... the smarter ones displayed some skepticism. There
are things all of us take for granted that are factually wrong; unless
something comes our way to make us think about them critically, we may never
question these things at all.

(I'm not big on German beer, though. The Belgians and the English have that
one all tied up.)

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "JoshuaTreeMuseum" <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2010 4:42 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Attention Steve Arnold: Divining Iron Meteorites


Chris;
You're losing a lot of credibility when you publicly admit that you've
fallen for the con of the Amazing Randi. Do some research, the guy's a
fraud:
http://torbjornsassersson.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/james-randi-and-his-one-million-dollar-challenge-fraud/

Essentially he was a washed up stage illusionist when he hit on a brilliant
idea to promote himself and charge a small fortune making fun of people on
the lecture circuit. I looked into his offer, it's rigged and a con. I can't
believe a man of science would fall for something like that.

You're seriously impugning the German people, the smartest folks on the
planet? Do the names of Nicolaus Copernicus, Albert Einstein, Werner von
Braun, Werner Heisenberg, Hermann Helmholtz, Max Planck, Wilhelm C. R?ntgen,
Heinrich R. Hertz, Karl Benz & Gottlieb Daimler, Nikolaus August Otto, Ernst
Ruska, Konrad Zuse, and Levi Strauss mean anything to you? How about
Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Strauss, Wagner, Kraftwerk and
Engelbert Humperdinck? I could go on like this for another hour or so, but
you get my point.

My god man, have you ever eaten a hot dog or a hamburger? Have you ever
drank a beer? Driven a car? Ever worn Lederhosen while schuhplattling to the
sounds of an oompa band? Have you ever seen Boris Becker play tennis?
(Would you ever guess that I'm of German extraction? :)

Phil Whitmer

Oh, and I love those Russian scientists, they're a laff-riot. Hard to bear
Pravdo for funny news too!
Received on Sun 17 Oct 2010 07:37:58 PM PDT