[Coral-List] About Coral List rewrite

Billy Causey billy.causey at noaa.gov
Mon Nov 30 11:20:18 EST 2009


Jim ...
You and your team do an incredible job of keeping the Coral List 
current, engaging and fair.  The service you provide is unmatched on any 
other list serve that I am a member of ...not that the rest aren't great 
too.  Personally, I enjoy the ebb and flow between science, research, 
monitoring, education, outreach, enforcement and other similar "topics" 
or "subjects" .... that's what makes it interesting and informative.  I 
can tell you... science alone is not going to save coral reefs from 
decline, nor will education alone save coral reefs from decline ... but 
all of these subjects in some way have a role on the Coral List.  If 
people get tired of a subject or a thread ...they can hit the delete 
button, as I do when I see certain postings.  Keep up what you're doing 
..... and yes, we can talk about climate change now!!

I am attaching a link that I received from one of my colleagues over the 
weekend.  I hope you approve it for posting.  It brings to mind some of 
the "advocates" for good science that I see routinely posting on the 
Coral List.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1389

Billy Causey

Jim Hendee wrote:
> Hi, Gene,
>
>     Not sure why the political jab at the U.S. constitution, but
> certainly I never intended to carve the "About" page in aragonite. 
> Regarding "subjects" vs. "science," I guess it seemed obvious to me that
> the subjects were areas of actual research, for the most part.  I work
> for NOAA, so call me guilty of referring to "climate change," "land-base
> sources of pollution," and "over-fishing" as a sampling of "research"
> that we and many others conduct daily.  A rose by any other name... 
> Those other "subjects" such as disease, reproduction, etc. seem to me to
> be areas of valid science, and what's the harm if a non-scientist throws
> in an observation or six and calls it something besides "science?" 
> What's your beef?  I don't get it.  Are you miffed because science is
> getting short shrift in your opinion?  The agencies who fund science
> aren't going to hold back the purse strings if the author of the
> proposal doesn't use the word "science" in it.
>
>     However, thanks for the input and I'll see if I can throw that token
> in there more to assuage anybody else's sense of the world of science
> lost to politics or whatever else.
>
>     Jim
>
> Eugene Shinn wrote:
>   
>> Jim, The US constitution is being rewritten almost everyday so I 
>> guess its is ok to rewrite the purposes of the coral-list. Under the 
>> heading  "Appropriate coral reef ecosystem-related subjects" I see 
>> that what we used to call science is now called "subjects"
>> Of the 20 bulleted topics I see only one uses the word science. But 
>> its your call.  Gene
>>   
>>     
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>   

-- 
Billy D. Causey, Ph.D., Regional Director
Southeast Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Region
National Marine Sanctuary Program
33 East Quay Road
Key West, Florida 33040

305.809.4670 (ex 234)
305.395.0150 (cell)
305.293.5011 (fax)

Billy.Causey at noaa.gov




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