From: utzoo!decvax!duke!harpo!zeppo!whuxlb!ech
Newsgroups: net.space
Title: Re: Equivalence of Mass and Energy
Article-I.D.: whuxlb.396
Posted: Tue Aug 10 14:30:21 1982
Received: Thu Aug 12 07:02:10 1982


I find it amazing that this correspondence continues: not because of the
exchange itself, but because of the amazing willingness of netnews
correspondents to make "ex cathedra" statements based on little information
and less understanding.  There is simply no way for the interested but
naive reader to separate the statements of those who understand what's
going on from those who glibly state misinformation as fact.

Naivete with regard to relativistic physics is, perhaps,
something we can expect in the netnews community: only a small fraction
are physicists.  Indeed, were I a professional physicist I would be either
outraged or fatally amused at some of the drivel we have seen recently;
as a mere interested layman I feel a little of both.

What I find frightening is the same kind of behavior within the computer
science domain, where we might expect some measure of professional competence.

The network has great potential for educating us all; we (the users) are
a diverse lot: we have highly varied backgrounds and avocations, as
demonstrated by the proliferation of non-cs interest groups.  The net can be
a fine resource, especially for the kind of queries we so often see for
information about a specific topic.

The net is also, in the words of one of my colleagues, "the world's largest
graffitti wall."

So, this is the plea: if you have genuine, reliable information, please
contribute it to the net.  If not, stop talking and start listening:
you might learn something.

=Ned Horvath=