Talk:Eric Pianka

message: 209.208.77.219 05:06, 11 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Forrest Mims did not Misrepresent Prof. Eric Pianka's Statements

message: Dennis Prager read a Senguin Gazette article (I believe this was the newspaper) reporting that some students who took Pianka's class had mentioned his calling for 90% of humanity to be exterminated in his lectures on Pianka's page at the the university's website, but that all student comments were removed within the last few days.  The article apparently quoted some of the comments before they were removed from the website. -- Gerkinstock 19:13, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Is there a cite for this information?  Abe Froman 19:18, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I've seen blog comments from people who claim to have been in his classes and said he said such things.  I have also seen blog comments from people who say they were there at the talk who said that he never said what Mims said he said, that the cameras were never turned off when he spoke (contrary to what Mims said) and that excerpts from the talk were shown on the local news that night.  All of this is, of course, unverifiable.  Guettarda 19:28, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Website

message: : If Pianka wants to warn the world as he claimed in the news interview then why were cameramen at his speech asked to turned their cameras off as Pianka told the audience that the world wasn't ready to hear what he had to say? This is a total contradiction and exposes Pianka for the liar he is but the biased self-proclaimed 'journalists' didn't pick up on it. www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/050406religionofgenocide.htm]
--Striver 23:01, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually we have the exact opposite - people who claim that the cameras were not turned off and that parts of the talk were shown on the local evening news.  Guettarda 01:56, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

text: Not to mention, with injuries that Pianka has, it wouldn't be a wonder if he feels uncomfortable in front of cameras. DLX 04:55, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

text: Panda's Thumb isn't a garden variety blog - it's more of an online publication.  Nick Matzke is known and reputable, and PT was named one of the top 25 Science and Technology websites by Scientific American.  I'd say it meets the standards of WP:V.  Guettarda 14:44, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  We still haven't gotten a real consensus on the matter as far as I am aware. I talked to Wesley R. Elsberry about this earlier. I would support declaring PT to be a reliable source for Wikipedia purposes but I'm not sure current policy and guidelines really allow for it, and I'm worried about invoking WP:IAR for this. However, if other editors think it is reasonable, I'll go along with it (and then send a note to Elsberry to the effect that PT has been approved a citable source). JoshuaZ 14:52, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: PT is reputable to the extent that as you can trust that Matzke is who he says he is.  Matzke is a reputable source based on his position at NCSE.  The post relates to a statement by the TAS which he says he received.  Is he credible enough a source to be trusted as to the source of the letter?  Is PT a prominent enough source that if it is a forgery it will soon be decried as such?  From that position, I'd be more than comfortable calling it a reputable source for this information.  Guettarda 15:18, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I have no objections to that logic. I'll send Elsberry a note that PT has been approved on a basically case by case basis then.  JoshuaZ 15:26, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: quote

message: I think that the basic structure of the article is sound: there's the biographical information and accomplishments, followed by a section on the recent controversy. However, we seem to have a "wag the dog" situation, as the section on the recent controversy is the most detailed thing on the page. I propose that a separate Wikipedia article be started to contain the details on the Mims accusation. I'm not sure what the title should be; I will leave that to those of you who know Wikipedia policies better. The "Controversy" section should probably be renamed, as I suspect that Pianka will be involved in further controversial encounters with his critics. Perhaps "Controversial Stances" or something of the sort would be a better section name. Within that, I would suggest that one paragraph summarizing the events so far and a link to the separate article I proposed would be sufficient. Most of the links and references in the article currently should be moved to the new article. That's my $0.02. Wesley R. Elsberry 23:55, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you to the folks who acted on my suggestion. I think the page organization and balance are much better now. Wesley R. Elsberry 17:36, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Structure of article

message: Here  note that Pearcey is yet another fellow of the DI. Also, reading this through, she seems to think that it supports Mim's version, but it doesn't. The statements I see look pretty close to what Pianka claimed he said. Is this just me or these people completely miseading it. JoshuaZ 01:51, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Not just you. I ran across this on StumbleUpon, people were talking about it like he'd planned with his scientist co-conspirators about how best to kill everyone else (sort of a Rainbow Six plot... whoops, sorry if you haven't read that yet, ignore my earlier comment). You know, evil scientists and all. As I said in my review of the page, "Just another half-rate magazine trying to make a name for itself through fear-mongering, sensationalistic panic pandering. " I'm proud of that phrase. Hence, I had to put it on wikipedia somewhere so it will be preserved for eternity. My job here is done. POOF *dissapears in a flash of light*--AK7 00:52, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Claimed Partial Transcript 

message: The newspaper which covered the event has provided a transcript.  --Thorleywinston 03:57, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: correct link DLX 06:29, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

text: Added the link to external and also a sentence about it to the article. Someone should expand this - a lot. DLX 06:47, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

text: For those of you working on this entry, or hopefully the new page to be made out of the controversy part, you must read Mike Dunford's comparison of the St. Edwards talk transcript with the newspaper article about that talk that ran in the Sequin newspaper.  Dunford shows in case after case that the newspaper article omitted relevant context, substituted words or phrases, and always did so to Pianka's detriment. Seguin, TX is Mims's home town. Wesley R. Elsberry 09:28, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Since the Seguin Gazette links have gone down, I've substituted a link from the Pearcey Report.... It's still a partial, but at least it's up (for now). MarcoTolo 00:27, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Transcript of the Speech

message: http://www.radioliberty.com/stones.htm --Striver 10:54, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Er, and what does this have to do with a Rosicrucian wannabe? JoshuaZ 14:27, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: This is another example of people in power advocating mass extinction for some nonsense reason. The guys building that stone monument also advocated a reduction to 500 000 people. This is just a example, its more common than you might think.--Striver 19:24, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Er, there are pretty good reasons to argue for a reduced population. Certainly, we dont have the resources to maintain 6 billion people at the level of comfort that middle class americans have. And see above, it seems clear Pianka wasn't arguing for large scale extinction anyways. JoshuaZ 19:41, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Flashback

message: I've removed the following passage. Pearcey, a prominent ID supporter and pal of Dembski is wholly partisan here and adds nothing new to the issue. Her viewpoint, were it to be included anywhere, belongs in the controversy article, not the bio. 
According to a partial transcript made available by the  Pearcey Report .  Dr. Pianka encourages the development of a virus capable of eliminating 90 percent of the population.  Moreover, he lauds the Chinese police state and its one child and forced abortion policies.
If it's going to be used at the controversy article, it will need to avaoid presenting Pearcey's assertions as fact. FeloniousMonk 22:21, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removed from article 

message: Removed a recent edit that included a complete transcript of Mims' account of Pianka's talk. This belongs in the controversy article. The edit expanded the "controversy" section to nearly the length of the biography, which is the primary focus of this article. Moreover, this new text was concluded by an assertion that a web page on Pianka's site advocated a "proactive" approach to population control. This assertion directly followed allegations that Pianka was advocating genocide and/or forced abortions and was used as a counter to Pianka's denial of these allegations, implying further that the "proactive" approach involved these methods. However, the actual article at http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~varanus/Everybody.html does no such thing, and the strongest "proactive" statement it makes is "We need to make a transition to a sustainable world. If we don't, nature is going to do it for us in ways of her own choosing. By definition, these ways will not be ours and they won't be much fun. Think about that." Interestingly, the assertion by the recent editor did not include a citation of the article, probably because the assertion as framed was untrue and potentially libelous. 128.83.54.233 04:50, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Material removed from article 

message: This article was automatically  assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 11:29, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  WikiProject class rating

message: I have tagged the image for deletion as replaceable fair use of a living person. I have emailed Professor Pianka and hope to get a free use image for this page. Richard001 (talk) 07:50, 30 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I've removed this image from the page. Hopefully someone from Wikipedia:WikiProject University of Texas at Austin can provide a free replacement photo. Richard001 (talk) 03:26, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[:Image:EricPianka.gif]] 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Professional anti-science advocates misrepresent a scientist's speech, controversy results, a written statement by Pianka explains what he really meant, which while not reassuring about the Earth's and humanity's future, is scientifically understood to be a potential concern.  Yet the article still uses unreliable sources (the Uncommon Descent creationist blog and another biologist's personal opinion) to claim that Pianka did suggest using bioterrorism to reduce the population.  It would probably be good to attempt to look for more recent secondary sources (do they exist?) and update the article...  Also, since the material used to be in a separate article that was now merged, the section could probably be optimized to be shorter.  —PaleoNeonate – 13:11, 31 October 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Review 

message: Scarcity and human instinct
http://www.zo.utexas.edu/courses/thoc/HumanInstincts.html 2603:7000:B901:8500:14CB:C918:B2A:560F (talk) 22:41, 20 August 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Depression era thinking.