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Kayak and Canoe Design Bulletin Board
Re: Baidarka thingamajig n stuff
Posted By: Pete WP In Response To: Re: Baidarka thingamajig n stuff (Ian Johnston)
Date: Monday, 31 January 2000, at 6:08 p.m.
> In their day, everyone is living in the "Golden Age".
Hi Ian,
A true golden age usually marks the emergence of a revolutionary front be it politics, technology or whatever. Its at these times when the fertile ground for creativety is wide open and a lot of the foundations are set.
How many
> times have scientists declared that all discoveries have been made and no
> new ones will be forthcoming?Never actually. Science by its own virtue often poses more questions than it answers.
How many times have religions predicted the
> end of the world?3,448,788?
> I think we mis-interpret older reasoning for superstition Without the
> ability and time to examine things as we do now, people make explanations
> to fit the observations made. If they had our ability to see things and
> our wealth of stored information they would reason as we do.There is
> nothing wrong with their reasoning ability only with the availability of
> information.The jurys silent on that one!
> Each new discovery is building on the discoveries of others so we are
> building on the discoveries of the original builders of kayaks.Thats true. I think in my remarks about the Aleuts it may seem Im slighting them for whats rightly their contributions. I'm not. Im just weary of hearing about old world achievments shrouded in the mystique of a sphinx. The trouble with this sort of thing is that often more gets attributed to the design in question than the original designers intended! The idea of a bow bulb to extend the waterline for a 5% speed increase is something along those lines.
> If I have an idea do you listen to it or do you check out my credentials
> first?Depends on your idea!
Science says that ideas should be looked at on their merit alone.
> Most people want to see your credentials first. We assume that the
> original designers of the "thingamajig" were superstitious and
> did not have a degree in engineering so they could not have meant this
> bifurcated bow to be a design improvement!The superstition angle was brought up strictly because for primitive cultures, superstitious notions fill the gaps where real knowledge cant be found. Its only logical to assume this would manifest itself here. As for a design improvement... it depends what you are saying they intended it for. Sure it could be a great design improvement. But if its to eek out a pervcentage or two in speed, they had no way in Heavens name of detecting anything so subtle. To say they had these means is to invoke this otherworldly capability I dont believe in.
Science says, "it doesn't
> matter! This person has an idea that should be examined on its
> merits".Ha!You ought to see the way pofessors will defend their finds when they get challenged by disbeleivers. The first thing they'll look to debase their attackers is low credentials.
We can test it to see if it works, we don't need an
> authority to tell us it is good or not!Always thought the FDA was a little excessive.
Ask any scientist, many mistakes
> have been great improvements.Oh hell, that what makes being a human so adventeruous!!
Thanks Ian,
Pete
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