more on ethics

[John R Hutchinson <jrhutch@stanford.edu>]

Hi again,

    Just to clarify, I think the eavesdropping incidents I and others witnessed were a rarity (although private e-mails to me since I posted indicate that some others had the same problem).  Also, I am sure the person wasn't a reporter.  In fact, reporters I've dealt with at SVP and elsewhere have been quite trustworthy in this respect.  You tell them what you feel comfortable with releasing as public information, and what is taboo (or "no comment"), and they respect that.

    I hope not to create paranoia or witch-hunting and finger-pointing hysteria with this post, but rather wanted to bring up the issue explicitly on the list in order to forestall any potential problems with impropriety.  Please post freely on what happened at SVP; it would be sad if discussion of the SVP talks was stymied by excess caution.  But after seeing some of the detailed notes and photos that people were taking at SVP, and recalling many previous incidents in which photos and descriptions of unpublished specimens were posted on the dinolist and/or WWW without permission of researchers, I felt obliged to comment.

    Best wishes,

John

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John R Hutchinson
NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Stanford University
BME, 209 Durand
3030 Mechanical Engineering
Stanford, CA 94305-3030
(650) 736-0804 lab
(415) 871-6437 cell
(650) 723-1587 fax
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