Re: paleonet Sympathies

["Kenneth A. Monsch" <kmonsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all,

In answer to Nieves López-Martínez e-mail: one of the questions asked here
is about science itself. I guess since no-one linked the issue to palaeo, or
even to science, we have been pretty quiet about it. Pseudo-religion has no
answer. There is also genuine faith (turn the other cheek, love your enemy),
but I won't discuss that. What about science? We should be responsible with
what we're doing, don't make Frankenstein's monsters. I believe (correct me
if I'm wrong) that journals such as Science and Nature are applying a
delicate sort of 'censoring' (a word with negative connotations, I know)
with bioterrorists in mind. Scientists are open to public scrutiny, so one
should always seek a balance between what to do, what to say, what not to
say and how. If a palaeontologist writes in 'Scientific American' that
he/she thanks those friendly so-called terrorists hidden in the mountains
that helped finding the outcrop and even assisted digging up the dinosaur
(if this ever gets past the editors!) then what message is sent to the
world? What could the outcome of such statements be? Maybe I'm exaggerating,
but that's how I see it right now. Whatever the reasons are for the attack
on Madrid, the only thing we can do now is address our sympathy to innocent
victims and a nation in shock.

Ken