On Sun, 08 Mar 2015 05:06:08 -0700, Miguel Roig wrote:
Thanks for sharing this additional bit of information, Mike. I
had also noticed some discrepancies in dates of published
articles identified by Google Scholar. I hope I am wrong,
but I believe that some of these new trends in science
publishing (e.g., news articles based on press releases,
the rise of predatory publishers) will ultimately result in the
further erosion of the public's trust in science.
I think that the general public is only dimly aware of these
things but specific political/business/ideological groups
are more likely to know about these problems and exploit
them for their own ends.
Regarding EPA ... Ugh ... I feel I must share my odyssey of
what happened. My plan had been to attend the meeting for
just one day as I am recuperating from foot surgery and still
hobbling around in crutches. Our poster was scheduled for
8:00 Friday and because of the 6-8 inches of snow that were
scheduled to fall (and did fall) on Thursday and out of concern
for his safety, I had earlier on Wednesday talked the one student
of the group who had planned to attend to stay home and not
do the drive by himself on Thursday evening. So, on Friday
I left my house at 4:30 AM for what would normally have been
a 2.5 hour drive to Philadelphia, budgeting another hour to
account for rush hour and other traffic delays, registration, etc.
But, the roads in my area (Monmouth County) were in such
poor condition that 45 minutes into the trip after seeing
a couple of cars fish-tailing in front of me I decided to turn
around. I just thought I would not have made it in time for our
poster. I note that there was a 35 mile per hour posted speed
limit for the two major arteries in that part of NJ: The Garden
State Parkway with barely two lanes open out of 3 and also in
the NJ Turnpike. Ironically, and I am totally mortified after I
learned this news, a colleague of mine who had left Staten Island
at around 6:00 AM made it to the hotel by 8:15!. It turns out that,
in spite of the posted 35 mph speed limit, the NJ Turnpike
was in very good shape and there was little traffic getting there.
I'm sorry to hear of your difficulties but if it will make you feel
any better, I think that Staten Island may have had better access
to the Garden State Parkway (NYC clearing of roads in SI and
NJ making access roads to NYC clear).
Let me share a story, especially since we just "sprung ahead"
into Daylight Saving Time: EPA has a tendency to be held
on the weekend that this change occurs and back in the 1990s
when I was more involved in EPA matters, I was chairing a
session at 8am on SUNDAY morning. The session had six
speakers, 3 per hour for the 8-10am slot. I stayed at the
hotel so I could get to the meeting room early and make sure
that everything was set-up properly. When I got there, there
were only three speakers: 1 from the 8-9 slot and 2 from the
9-10 slot. At first I didn't understand but then remembered that
we had the time change on Sunday morning. Fortunately,
the first speaker was there and the second speaker showed
up late, and the three speakers for the second hour were all
there. But the third speaker wasn't there. I started the session
and hoped that the third speaker would show up eventually.
After the second speaker finished and the third speaker was
a no-show, I decided to provide a brief description of what the
third speaker might have said (I had the long abstract that the
speaker had submitted and had some familiarity with the topic).
So, I spoke for about 5 minutes, told the audience that if they
wanted more information to write to the speaker to get a copy
of the paper that was supposed to be presented, and I then
said "let's break until 9am so that we'll stay on schedule.
When 9am came around, the scheduled speaker gave his
presentation. Then the person who was supposed to give
the talk at 8:40am showed up. During the question period
he came up to me, told me that he had forgot to set his clock
ahead, and was sorry about being late. I said it was okay
and that I'd tell the audience that he was here if anyone
wanted to talk to him about his presentation.
I would later recommend to EPA NOT to hold its meeting
during such time changes.
The only worse situation I've been involved with was a session
at Psychonomics which I chaired and was one of the last sessions
on a Sunday afternoon (I think it was a 2-4 slot; they too met from
Friday to Sunday back in the day). At the beginning of the session
only two of the presenters were there. I started to worry
that I was going to have give a bunch of summaries
and/or end the session earlier. Instead, presenters showed
up when their talk was scheduled and left when it was over.
One of the speakers was a well-known memory researcher
who did this and I was disappointed by the lack of professionalism
shown by the people did this. But I guess since it was the last
session, they put a higher priority on checking out of the hotel,
saying good-by to people they wouldn't see until next year's meeting,
and getting out of town.
Live and learn ...
Indeed.
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
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