[Coral-List] Coral Reef Curmudgeons Unite in a Yahoo! group

Ed Blume eblume2702 at gmail.com
Sun Feb 21 18:30:29 EST 2010


It's done!

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/coralreef-freeforall/

Send subscription request to coralreef-freeforall-subscribe at yahoogroups.com

I'm not a scientist.  I took high school biology and chemistry for
poets at Purdue.

However, I love the ocean and all its critters.  I get goose bumps
just looking out across the water, and diving among with critters that
Holliwood couldn't conjur on its best day.  By contrast, I think
mountains are pretty -- like a postcard.  They don't do much for me.
The corn, soybean, and alphlfa fields of Wisconsin don't either.

I could give you more about my background, but it's certainly not as
interesting as the backgrounds of most of you.  I will say, though,
that my day job is communicatigons and outreach at RENEW Wisconsin, a
non-profit group advocating for renewable energy.  I moderate two
blogs based on the prettiest place I've ever been (not that I've been
many places) -- http://www.akumalsealife.blogspot.com and
http://www.ecoyucatan.org.

Join this list if you'd like.  I will moderate lightly, but I require
membership approval to weed out spamers.

Ed Blume
Madison, WI
www.renewwisconsin.org
www.ceakumal.org

p.s. Jim, if you don't like my reference to your email as the
description of the list serve, let me know and I'll take off your
name.  Ed

On 2/21/10, Jim Hendee <jim.hendee at noaa.gov> wrote:
> Aloha, Coral-Listers!
>
>      You may have wondered sometimes at the decision-making process on
> how one post gets through, while another gets quashed.  In this corner,
> there are no hard-and-fast rules, just general guidelines, which are
> stated on the Coral-List info page
> <http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list>.   Sometimes
> repeat transgressions, shall we say, are what may stop a post.
> Sometimes a post goes through even though it may seem inflammatory,
> while another view may show it to be a refreshing new perspective.  I
> sometimes goof big time.
>
>      It's hard not to let personalities and our personal passions become
> part of what we do professionally--for most of us, that's why we do it.
> I reckon pure science should be utterly passionless, but implementing
> science via funding agencies means we are ruled by politics, which
> obviously are not passionless--quite the opposite; and we all have to
> deal with each other.  Throw into the mix the obvious nature of some big
> egos and it can really foul things up.  So we have this continual train
> wreck of the scientists and conservationists, the glory-hoggers, and the
> politicians, and everybody trying to get their own way.
>
>      Now, some of the shortcomings of this particular U.S. Government
> run Coral-List are that you can't lobby Congress, you can't call each
> other nasty names, you can't send pictures and attachments, and
> generally everybody has to be nice.  However, I have recently been
> reminded of the Patrick Swayze quote in the movie /Road House/:  "I want
> you to be nice...until it's time to /not/ be nice."  And so I am most
> seriously suggesting that "somebody" (not me!) consider starting a Coral
> Reef Curmudgeons (or Coral Reef Politics, or whatever) list using, say
> Yahoo Groups.  There you can call each other dirty rotten scoundrels,
> you can post all kids of illustrative or condemning pictures, you can
> say whichever U.S. or state government agency is doing a rotten job
> because so-and-so let his ego get in the way (or whatever), you can say
> Dr. Blackshark falsified his results, you can say global warming is a
> big liberal tree-hugging hoax manufactured to keep scientists employed,
> you can post sarcasm intended to embarrass or provoke, or that all Dr.
> Blackshark's research money is going to buy junkets to Bali in the name
> of some dubious research pretext.  Such a list might be refreshing,
> humorous, illuminating and actually useful in letting off steam.  New
> friendships and enemies will be made, people may get embarrassed or feel
> vindicated, and havoc may result, but some of the truths may enlighten
> us all.  It would be a true, free-wheelin' list to say what you think
> without government censorship.  It's just an idea to consider.
>
>      Cheers,
>      Jim
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>



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