[meteorite-list] re: All Hail Eris and Dysnomia (2003 UB313)

Marco Langbroek marco.langbroek at wanadoo.nl
Sat Sep 16 07:16:44 EDT 2006


I wrote:
 >> people are innocent until[l] proven otherwise.

and Sterling answered:
 >    Ortiz is not accused of a crime. The standard that you
 > refer to, of civil legality, does not apply here. The standard
 > in question is that of personal behavior, perhaps no more
 > than the balance between ambition and the means of its
 > achievement.

No, the standard is that of a civilized society where defamation with 
accusations you can not prove is frowned upon. Civil legality is just a formal 
extension of that, it is grounded in the basic standard of our society. This as 
opposed to a standard of mob lynching, where shouting "(s)he is a witch!" is 
enough to burn someone.

When initial word of the controversy broke, it was alleged that Ortiz et al. had 
really hacked into Brown's computer network. That then turned out to be not the 
case at all but the tone was set.

 From the initial messages, I thought Ortiz et al. indeed had been behaving 
unethically (see my message on the FMO mailing list here: 
http://www.freelists.org/archives/fmo/09-2005/msg00089.html )

When however it became clear the hacking accusation was not what in fact 
happened and I started to shift facts from dark speculations, I revised my 
position on this case. I realized another reading of the events was as likely as 
the dark reading being agressively pushed by some.

Having experienced quite a few nasty political games in science, I moreover 
began to smell some possible darker sentiments behind that agressive pushing, in 
which Ortiz is a victim rather than a culprit. If you look carefully to the 
actions of the other side in the debate, there are quite some odd things there 
too. For example, and in addition to the unfounded but very damning accussation 
of "hacking", to the outside world they tried to picture Ortiz as an unknown 
non-professional, an amateur popping out of the blue. The man is a professional 
however, attached to a formal academic institution, and with a record of peer 
reviewed scientific papers on TNO's, running a scientific research program on TNO's.

This made me even more cautious towards the whole issue.


 >    I surmise that it is not unreasonable to characterize you
 > and Ortiz as colleagues or co-workers to some unknown
 > degree; perhaps you are friends, I don't know. Familiarity
 > of some degree may be the best guide to judgment, or it
 > may not. One is naturally inclined to think well of friends
 > and associates. Sometimes, one is ultimately disappointed
 > when one does so.

I have no relation to Ortiz or his co-workers whatsoever. Never met him, never 
talked to him. I do know he did good work in the past.

I have done work myself, as an amateur, on asteroids, even formally discovered a 
Near Earth Asteroid, and pried unknown main belt asteroids from NEAT archive 
data and reported these to the MPC. From this work, I know about procedures in 
the field of minor body research, how to submit data, and what is possible and 
not with obtaining orbit data and object positions. On those points I can 
therefore make my own informed judgements instead of having to paraphrase. I 
recognize where things are not as they are portrayed to be, with regard to these 
aspects.


>    As to what Ortiz actually did, I do not know the truth of
> things. And neither do you. 

Yet you act as if you do know. You sentence him to be guilty. That is the mob 
lynching mentality. "Fetch a rope, we'll hang him!"

Finally, with regard to the repeated statement that Ortiz pulled his website 
text on 2003EL61 etc.: In a case like this, where every word written on it is 
turned twice, every letter of it scrutinized and where possible taken out of 
context, this was only wise of him to do.

This whole case has a strong element of a witchhunt to it. And I am affraid it 
has a dark political undercurrent, reason why I am very cautious with judging 
someone "guilty".

There is a lot more I would like to say on this, but I am tired of the 
discussion and fear if I do so it would raise sentiments that would further blur 
the discussion.

- Marco


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Dr Marco Langbroek
Dutch Meteor Society (DMS)

e-mail: meteorites at dmsweb.org
private website http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek
DMS website http://www.dmsweb.org
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