Saturday, September 27, 2008
Stupid, stupid crack reporting
Posted by Simon Halliday | Saturday, September 27, 2008 | Category:
Skepticism,
South Africa
|
The Mercury reports that Danie Krugel, South Africa's famed quack with his 'quantum machine' is an academic! WHAT CRAZY, CRAZY MISREPRESENTATION!!! HT: Yet Another Sceptic's Blog
I sent them the following letter:
To Whom It May Concern,
The article mentioned above inaccurately prints that Danie Krugel is an 'academic'. To be an academic an individual is required to be affiliated with a university or a recognised research institute. Danie Krugel is therefore not an academic. That you have printed such information does your publication a terrible disservice. You have perpetuated the belief in the veracity of Mr. Krugel's 'machine' and thus you perpetuate unscientific thinking and reporting based on lack of evidence. This is horrific for a publication that is meant to report solely based on facts. Please ensure that you correct this atrocious misrepresentation.
Best regards,
Simon Halliday
PhD Student, Facoltà di Economia, University of Siena, Italy
I sent them the following letter:
To Whom It May Concern,
The article mentioned above inaccurately prints that Danie Krugel is an 'academic'. To be an academic an individual is required to be affiliated with a university or a recognised research institute. Danie Krugel is therefore not an academic. That you have printed such information does your publication a terrible disservice. You have perpetuated the belief in the veracity of Mr. Krugel's 'machine' and thus you perpetuate unscientific thinking and reporting based on lack of evidence. This is horrific for a publication that is meant to report solely based on facts. Please ensure that you correct this atrocious misrepresentation.
Best regards,
Simon Halliday
PhD Student, Facoltà di Economia, University of Siena, Italy
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AFAIK, Kurgel works in a non-academic position at a university. (University of Free State?). So that might be the source of the confusion...
Ah. According to SSiE, he's the "director of Campus Security at the Central University of Technology, Bloemfontein"
I think that takes my 'affiliated with an institution' definition to new and somewhat crazy lengths don't you think? Unless of course you think that campus security positions are academic positions...
I'm not saying (of course!) that you're wrong - Danie is by no proper definition an academic. I was just diagnosing the confusion...
Mike, don't worry at all. What I worry about, though, is that such information is mistaken and then propagated by uninformed masses. I fully understand how it occurs though. Once more, I would probably blame Krugel for not ensuring that the facts about him are not straight. But that's just me.