Ryan
Och aye, mun, whe are ye to say there's nae monster? It's a braw
attraction for Sassenach tourists.
And you cannot prove there isn't one, any more than it has been proved
there is one.
:-)
Brian
Ryan Grant wrote:
>
> Davy,
>
> A classic example of researchers accepting grant money for bogus reasons
> because "it for a good cause", is the Loch Ness Monster. When public
> notoriety of the Loch Ness Monster reached an all time high, local
> legislators finally appropriated millions to the search for the monster.
> Researchers flocked to grab the money in order to conduct research. Now,
> none of the researchers believed there was a monster, but....it "allowed
> legitimate marine research on deep Lochs". Granted, valuable science did
> come from the research, its just unfortunate how it came about. (By the
> way.....there is no lake monster).
>
> Kind Regards
>
> Ryan Grant
> Advanced Technology Engineer
> MCMS
> (208) 898-1145
> [log in to unmask]
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Davy, Gordon [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2001 7:19 AM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: [LF] Recycling and irresponsibility
> >
> > Seth Goodman has questioned my assertion that recycling end-of-life
> > electronics is a waste of money. He says, "the motive for recycling is the
> > reduction in volume of our solid waste stream."
> > First we need to remember that end-of-life electronic products constitute
> > one percent of municipal solid waste. If it hadn't been for activists
> > looking for an issue, I doubt that anyone would have even considered such
> > a
> > minor constituent. Also, in response to Brian Ellis's comment, the amount
> > of
> > mining and refining that would be avoided by electronics recycling is too
> > small to notice, as I'm sure that the leadfree life-cycle analysis will
> > conclude. If the activists can't find a bigger opportunity than this to go
> > after, they should declare victory, return the remaining money in their
> > treasuries to their donors, and dissolve their organizations.
> > The motive for recycling should be to reduce the cost of handling solid
> > municipal waste. If due to local situation the cost of disposal is higher,
> > then in that region recycling of some things might turn out to be an
> > economical alternative. But if it turns out that loading the refuse in a
> > truck and hauling it five hundred miles away to an acceptable location is
> > less expensive, then that is what should be done. (Brian, high-value scrap
> > already gets recycled.) Economics, not idealism. Adam Smith's "invisible
> > hand" will make it happen automatically. In fact, if recycling makes
> > economic sense, then there is no need for any deliberative or legislative
> > body to take any action to promote it, other than to ensure that the costs
> > are accurately known. To that end, governments can institute a "pay as you
> > throw" policy, to ensure that the amount that people are charged
> > accurately
> > reflects the cost of disposal, and is not being subsidized by tax money.
> > Where this has been tried, it has reduced the volume by a lot more than
> > diverting all electronic products would. See
> > http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/payt/ .
> >
> > Mr. Goodman says "I might also suggest to Gordon that he try to avoid
> > pairing every occurrence of the word environmentalist with irresponsible.
> > While he never directly states that all environmentalists are
> > irresponsible
> > propagandists, ..."
> > I don't know what fraction of all environmentalists is irresponsible, and
> > it
> > doesn't really matter. It's the irresponsible ones who are causing the
> > problem. These are the ones who love to talk about greedy irresponsible
> > industrialists. I thought about including "greedy" in my characterization
> > of
> > them - perhaps introduce an acronym: GIEAs. At least industrialists admit
> > to
> > being in business to make money. The GIEAs exploit people's concern for
> > the
> > environment to pursue their own selfish ends. Edward Szpruch identified an
> > additional source of funding (grants to research people) that I hadn't
> > considered. It must be tempting to people who need to raise money, to try
> > to
> > frighten people into supporting them - it seems to work so well. And if
> > you
> > have to mislead them to accomplish your ends, you can always rationalize
> > "Well, it's for a good cause."
> > Maybe it would help if responsible environmentalists would distance
> > themselves from the irresponsible ones by publicly criticizing their
> > tactics. Their silence might be interpreted by some as condoning them.
> >
> > Gordon Davy
> > Baltimore, MD
> > [log in to unmask]
> > 410-993-7399
> >
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > -------
> > Leadfee Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d
> > To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
> > the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Leadfree
> > To temporarily stop delivery of Leadree for vacation breaks send: SET
> > Leadfree NOMAIL
> > Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases >
> > E-mail Archives
> > Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for
> > additional
> > information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700
> > ext.5315
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > -------
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Leadfee Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d
> To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
> the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Leadfree
> To temporarily stop delivery of Leadree for vacation breaks send: SET Leadfree NOMAIL
> Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives
> Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional
> information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leadfee Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Leadfree
To temporarily stop delivery of Leadree for vacation breaks send: SET Leadfree NOMAIL
Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives
Please visit IPC web site (http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm) for additional
information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
