Please Help the World's Rarest Butterfly

[Bruce Walsh]

My impression is that we want to tone down personal attacks here in
leps-l.  In particular, poor Paul Cherubini gets a lot of "hits".  What is his
crime?

One, he is opinionated, and often with a different opinion from many. 
However, there are lots of opinionated folks her on leps-l, so that it no
reason for personal attacks.

Second,   he often asks for information to back up our claims.  For
example, if action X is so drastic, it should be easy to indeed provide
information that it is so.  This is simply science.  Now, one can make the case
that by actually asking us to show that something is a major factor, rather
than simply ASSUMING it is, that this is somehow bad.  This is odd logic.
 We may not like Paul always asking for further information or details,
but this is the basic nature of science.  If we regard ourselves as
scientists, rather than just persons with strong opinions, we should welcome the
chance to make our case.  I'll close by simply saying that as one who as
served as an associate editor for many of the major journals in population
biology (Genetics, Genetical Research, Evolution, The American Naturalist,
Theoretical Population Biology) and as a reviewer for all the rest, that
I often ask authors to respond questions along the lines of what Paul is
asking, EVEN WHEN I FULLY AGREE with the authors.

Peace

Bruce