Re: T. rex vision

[larrys@zk3.dec.com]

Ray McAllister <mcallist@gate.net>:
>Larry and gang,
>       Aren't we taking the exact significance of T-rex vision too far? 
>We, the dinosaur buffs are quite concerned but I'll bet if you ask 100 
>people at random, only a couple will remember the "stay still" bit and 
>since they will never? meet up with a T-rex even those couple will not be 
>affected.

Ray, it's not so much t-rex vision in and of itself.  If
that were the only, or even the most egregious, error made
in the popular consciousness, I would be ecstatic.  But what
_I_ see is a pattern of scientific disinformation - and not
just with dinosaurs - where inaccuracies and disinformation
propagates itself from generation to generation.  Why?  Because
it's too much trouble for people to be _bothered_ to be accurate,
it's far easier to just coast on what's at hand.  Like the teach-
er mentioned elsewhere on this thread who decided that rhinos
must be descended from dinosaurs because a broken monoclonius
looked sort of like a rhino, we are slowly crumbling the mortar
of our educational system.  One incident is funny.  Several is
cause for concern - and some of these are epidemic in our educ-
ational so-called "system", where upwards of half the student
couldn't even find the US on a globe.  Worse, this same attitude
is very prevalent in gov't, where non-factual "studies" and even
real studies, condensed down to the point where both real data
and cautions about validity have been lost, become the basis for
actual legislation.

And there just isn't a need for it, because I don't think it is
at all difficult to get things _right_ in the first place.  If
Spielberg really _had_ to have his scene, a simple bit of throw-
away dialog, as was used in the book, about the effect of the
frog DNA on vision would have been easy to include, but he, like
so many others, just coasted - easier and who could tell but a
few dinosaur nuts?  Indeed.  But why should it be so restricted?
If people walked about the outside of the starship Enterprise
without space suits, _anyone_ could see that was wrong.  Is that
so much easier?

regards,
Larry Smith