[quoting Tripp, 28 Oct 96] Tom, let's face it. The use of words like "cranks and crackpots" is a tacit admission of the weakness of your position. Everyone reading this knows that if you had legitimate arguments to make, you would make them and not resort to name-calling.
I'll let others decide whether my arguments are legitimate, but I must apologize if you thought I was calling you a "crank," "crackpot," etc. Those words in my earlier message were all direct quotes from the section of Casti's book in which he defined pseudoscience. In addition, although I certainly view the "text versus sound" study you reported as a pseudoscientific challenge to Clark's meta-scientific observation about media and learning, I do not conclude that you are a pseudoscientist. In my definition, we all are susceptible to pseudoscience when we do not adhere to the assumptions and methods of a given research paradigm.
To change the topic completely, I suspect most of us were jealous when you announced you were going sailing this weekend. How was it? Our weekend here in Georgia was miserable as far as sports goes. Our beloved Atlanta Braves lost the World Series of baseball to the dreaded New York Yankees. Of course, calling this event the "World" Series is ethnocentric given that we only allow teams to play from the USA and Canada. The Little Leagues in the USA started inviting team from other countries into their version of the World Series years ago, and ever since, our youngsters are regularly drubbed by the Taiwanese.