[Taxacom] Pop article on taxonomy's decline

[Stephen Thorpe]

then let me be more precise, and less bizarre: if funding that should be going 
to basic taxonomy (the basis for cladistics, etc., etc.) goes to cladistics 
instead, then cladistics is an "enemy of taxonomy", almost literally "mugging 
it". Cladistics in itself, and in its place, with appropriately divied up 
funding with basic taxonomy is fine, but that don't seem to be the way things 
are ...




________________________________
From: John Grehan <jgrehan at sciencebuff.org>
To: TAXACOM <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Thu, 27 January, 2011 10:54:53 AM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Pop article on taxonomy's decline

Saying that cladistics is an enemy of taxonomy seems to me to be bizarre, to say 
the least. I'm labeled as a cladist, so how am I an enemy of taxonomy?

John Grehan

-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu 
[mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Stephen Thorpe
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 4:27 PM
To: TAXACOM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Pop article on taxonomy's decline

I don't think that the right enemy has been identified here ... I don't blame 
bioinformatics for the decline of taxonomy (if anything, it is a covert way of 
diverting some funding back to taxonomy, funding that would otherwise be 
swallowed up by the real enemies: cladistics and molecular biology)

the real "children" are frantic to "climb trees" and play computer games ...

Stephen





________________________________
From: Bob Mesibov <mesibov at southcom.com.au>
To: TAXACOM <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Thu, 27 January, 2011 9:35:38 AM
Subject: [Taxacom] Pop article on taxonomy's decline

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/extinction-of-taxonomists/

Quote:
"The millions of dollars spent globally on technology to catalog species may 
actually be pushing out the people we rely upon: taxonomists and systematists. 
We're like young children frantic to add new baseball cards to our collections, 
while the actual creators of the baseball cards themselves are vanishing."

Nice to see that message getting out to a wider audience.
-- 
Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and
School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
Ph: (03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195
Webpage: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/?articleID=570

_______________________________________________

Taxacom Mailing List
Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom

The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with either of these 
methods:

(1) http://taxacom.markmail.org

Or (2) a Google search specified as:  site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  

your search terms here


      
_______________________________________________

Taxacom Mailing List
Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom

The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with either of these 
methods:

(1) http://taxacom.markmail.org

Or (2) a Google search specified as:  site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  
your search terms here

_______________________________________________

Taxacom Mailing List
Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/taxacom

The Taxacom archive going back to 1992 may be searched with either of these 
methods:

(1) http://taxacom.markmail.org

Or (2) a Google search specified as:  site:mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom  
your search terms here