Steve, Everybody has gut feelings. Sceintists learn to honestly test their gut feelings and loftiest ideas. A sophist is a person who uses innuendo and reference to mysterious ill defined constructs to lead people's minds without taking explicit responsibility for what they do. They are salesmen, they are conmen, they are the sort of sophmoric excuses for scientists that masters programs and bad PhD programs churn out for the money. They are you.
I see you work in a childrens hospital. My disabled daughter Grace was saved at birth by the doctors and researchers at Shands Hospital here in Gainseville. Those are men and women who used their brains and hearts to defy the gut feeling of hopelessness. Grace lived 11 wonderful years, except the time she spent in Alabama being abused in a school system run by sophists. She died suddenly. She cost a lot of time and money. And she was the best human being I ever knew. The thought of a person with nothing but gut feelings, sarcasm and friends like David, taking up the resources that could help children, makes me sick. You want a cheap and easy way to fulfill you narcissitic needs for glorification. Do not do it at the expense of sick children. Sick kids need people with brains and strength, with the tenacity to discover the solutions to real problems. You better grow up fast if you do not want to be listed with the parasites of humanity. Do not profane the name of science with your childish gut feelings. Make sense or get out of the business. The kids do not need you, science does not need you and nor do us assholes who will by God, rationality and hard work solve problems in life with or without the permission of your silly gut feelings. William Chambers, PhD. "Simon, Steve, PhD" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message E7AC96207335D411B1E7009027FC284902A9B2DB@EXCHANGE2">news:E7AC96207335D411B1E7009027FC284902A9B2DB@EXCHANGE2... > Dr. Chambers pointed out that I was sarcastic and childish and a bunch of > other things. These are all true. He also accused me of sophistry, and if > this happened, it was purely accidental. I don't even know what the word > means. > > Rather responding point by point, I'll spend the time working on finding > more real data sets. But one comment is worth responding to. > > I wrote: > > >> Testing CR on a C-sample might be worthwhile, but we'd have to think >> > of an experiment we could design that wouldn't cost a lot of money or >> > take a lot of time. > > And Dr. Chambers replied: > > >Did they teach you in science to only pursue cheap and easy challenges? > > To which I can only say that you are welcome to spend lots of money and lots > of time designing a C-sample and testing it. Present the results here when > you do. > > I personally believe that I have already spent too much time on this. This > may be a mistake, but I can only trust my gut feeling. All scientists pursue > or reject areas of investigation based on their gut. > > I'll still muddle along and try a few simple things when I have time. CR is > interesting and has some odd appeal to me. Perhaps it is the graphical > nature that underlies many of the calculations. But I am not spending any > serious time or money on this. My gut tells me otherwise. > > That may make me a sophist, I'm not really sure--where is my dictionary? > > Best of luck, Dr. Chambers. > > Steve Simon, [EMAIL PROTECTED], Standard Disclaimer. > The STATS web page has moved to > http://www.childrens-mercy.org/stats. > > > . > . > ================================================================= > Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the > problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: > . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . > ================================================================= . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
