Hoboy.
Wow.
The appointment of Dr Larry Marshall as the new Chief Executive of
the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
was announced today by the Chairman of the CSIRO Board, Simon McKeon.
“Dr Marshall has an impeccable record as a scientist, a technology innovator and business leader,” Mr McKeon said.
http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Media/International-technology-innovator-to-lead-CSIRO.aspx
That sounded great right until he completely undid all of that with his incredibly naive comments on dowsing. I love how he skipped right to speculating on all the wonderful financial and environmental development dowsing could bring and proposing spending cash on it before checking to see if it actually works. It’s kind of like skipping ahead to what kind of saddle shoes angels wear while dancing on the head of the pin before establishing that angels exist and whether any can actually dance on the head of a pin.
I suppose the real test is whether he will retract his position when shown all the proof that dowsers, in fact, are no better than chance at finding water or objects that they claim they can sense through dowsing. If he doesn’t change his position, as a good scientist does, based on the evidence then he may be loosing it like some physicists do later in life. I’m thinking that the Bay Area venture capital firm he worked for is happy he’s not playing with their money any more. (Or maybe he still is? :-0 )
