[Taxacom] Caveat emptor (raw taxanomic data)

[Kenneth Kinman]

Dear All,
      The consumer of anything, whether it be of taxonomic data, food
products, or other products, must increasingly be aware that "caveat
emptor" (buyer beware) is always the best policy in a world where
quantity tends to be increasingly valued over quality.   
        As for food products, the recent massive egg recall is a case in
point.  The U.S. government isn't general going to be very proactive in
preventing bad products from reaching the market place, but just
reacting to the problem months after the fact.  In my opinion the same
generally goes for the products of scientific research funded by
government agencies.  It can vary from excellent to pouring money down a
rat hole.      
      In the case of eggs, some are now calling for more pasteurization
of eggs, but that clearly raises the cost of such eggs, and also will
probably end up in cases where producers will cut corners and sell
half-way pasteurized eggs, and unwary consumers could pay more and still
get sick from oontamination.  And the price of "organic" (but
unpasteurized) eggs is already going up, but there is no guarantee that
such "organic" eggs do not contain salmonella.  Some fraction almost
certainly do.  The only safe solution is to thoroughly cook eggs (if the
yolk is not cooked to a solid state, eater beware). Scrambled eggs are
perhaps a safer bet than fried.     
       Same with taxonomic information.  If you don't process and "cook"
the raw data properly, you are likely to get "sick" results.  It doesn't
matter if it is morphological or molecular data, either can give you
"sick" results if you don't process it properly and then weigh each in
an appropriate manner (depending on the taxon and the information
available).  You can't depend on governmental agencies to protect you
from contamination in your food OR your taxonomic data.    
       ---------Ken Kinman