On Mar 24, 2005, at 12:10 PM, Ted Culotta wrote:

On Mar 24, 2005, at 11:54 AM, Richard Hendrickson wrote:

BTW, disagreeing with Tony Thompson on this subject is unwise, as he is
a highly qualified metallurgist and materials scientist with degrees
from Stanford, the University of Washington, and MIT and a long
professional career in teaching, research and consulting.

What's that saying about those who can't do, teach and those who can't
teach, consult? Running for cover with tongue firmly in cheek....

C'mon, Ted, while your tongue is in your cheek, bite down hard on it as a reminder to think before activating keyboard. Teaching, research, and consulting is what metallurgists do. They research the properties of metals and make that information available to the engineers who design metal things and to the founders, machinists, millwrights, etc. who make metal or metal objects. By analogy with your cheap shot, we shouldn't take astronomers very seriously because all they do is study the universe and tell us what's out there, they don't actually produce stars and planets.