[Wikipedia-l] Non-notability "abuse"

[Ian Tresman]

At 20:33 18/09/2007, Matthew Brown wrote:
>On 9/18/07, Ian Tresman <ian2 at knowledge.co.uk> wrote:
> > I recall Director of NASA's Goddard Space Center,
> > Columbia astronomer and Dartmouth earth
> > scientist, Robert Jastrow, criticizing part of
> > Carl Sagan's assessment of Worlds in Collision,
> > and concluded that "Here Velikovsky was the
> > better astronomer" [The New York Times (December 2, 1979)
>
>I suspect this was intended as a monumental insult to Sagan rather
>than any praise to Velikovsky.


"Velikovsky was the better astronomer" sure reads like praise to me.

I suppose that when Velikovsky earned an Honorary Degree of Doctor of 
Arts and Science from the University of Lethbridge in 1974, this was 
meant as a monumental insult to everyone at the University.


George Herbert wrote:

>Yeah, unfortunately unless you know the history here (Sagan was
>monumentally unpopular in his field, as popular as he was to the
>public), it's easy to be confused.


But surely not as unpopular as Velikovsky.

Regards,

Ian Tresman
www.plasma-universe.com