Bruce Bostwick wrote: > I've seen firsthand the kind of damage a Ph.D. can do if there are no > constraining factors. Condensed version of the story: Geophysics > professors should not attempt carpentry, especially if their idea of > how to cut a 4x4 is with a circulal saw, and even more so if they > don't see anything wrong with using a plywood blade to do it. A dull > one, no less. And if they do it surrounded by their own students, who > are acutely aware of how thoroughly the Prof is embarrassing himself > but dare not speak up to point this out .. well, it's a sight to behold. > > (I came within a few red hairs of going to my own car, grabbing the > circular saw with the carbide crosscut blade on it, and finishing his > 20-minute odyssey of noise and smoke with a half-second zip through > the offending board. Self-educated gentleman-amateurs with a modest > amount of engineering knowledge *do* tend to make decent carpenters. > Especially if they grew up around fathers whose lifetime hobby was > carpentry. There's at least one garage I helped frame that is well on > track to outlasting the house it was built for.) > > On Jul 17, 2008, at 5:48 PM, Kevin B. O'Brien wrote: > > >> Some of the dumbest people I ever met had PhDs and were teaching. >> >> Regards, >> That is a case of something outside of their presumed knowledge. But I recall the Physics professor who seriously argued in a faculty meeting that we should submit grades carried out to 4 decimal places since the software used to record grades and compute GPA would carry its results to 4 decimal places. I don't see how you can be a professor in *any* science and not understand the idea of limits to measurement accuracy.
BTW, I was a professor of Economics at the time. I know some people like to claim that social scientists are "soft" and incapable of real science, but I instantly saw why his proposal was ridiculous. Regards, -- Kevin B. O'Brien TANSTAAFL [EMAIL PROTECTED] Linux User #333216 "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." --Albert Einstein _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
