[Syrphidae] 3rd syrphidae symposium presentations

Kumar Ghorpade blossomfly1973 at yahoo.co.in
Mon Dec 19 05:14:44 GMT 2005


  Dear Frank and others,
    First, I am not a "syrphid" but a great lover of these fascinating creations of evolution and a diligent student of their taxonomy, bio-ecology, biogeography and evolution, especially of those wonders that fly in the Oriental Region, which I think is as or more biodiverse than the Neotropical !
      Second, I am glad that these presentations are now online as I had just enquired of the other "Frank," the Gilbert (without his Sullivan?) who characteristically "lurks" behind your Leiden group in the shadows so one cannot see his face ! The caution about being careful not to treat these online databases as "published" is well put by Dr Dziock. I had the pleasure of viewing the BBC programme "Nobel Minds" last weekend on TV, which has evolved from being an "Idiot Box" to a money-spinning "Ad Machine," at least in my country, India ! The 9 Nobel Laureates for Science (it is incredulous and shocking how there is still no prize for us biologists, besides for Medicine !!) participated in a very intyerestng and educative 40-minute "pow-pow" interweaving each of their disciplines into a congizible "whole." One aspect the touched was about this "information flood" on the internet and the value of data sent on ether. I have myself written critically about the actual scientifc value of
 such "fast track" messages without the peer review system that we scientists respect and rely on for authenticated databases. 
     I am happy with our syrphid discussion site since it is neither as voluminous nor presumptive as the natural history and bird ones I have had the disgust to use. As the Laureates agreed, the internet is useful for faster communication and easier facilitation of our writings but must never supercede the printed and distributed scientific paper in academic circles. Even books they said were not reliable and rarely previewed properly by experts and therefore questionable in content. In another BBC programme Dr Richard Dawkins (Oxford University) commented that they way he keeps track of the importrant literatrure published year after year was to "select the grain from the chaff." The other recent scientist who also wrote for the educated public, Dr Stephen Jay Gould, had written in one of his very readble and thought provokng books : 
    "AS THE NEW Darwinian orthodoxy swept through Europe, its most brilliant opponent, the aging embryologist Karl Ernst von Baer, remarked with bitter irony that every triumphant theory passes through three stages: first it is dismissed as untrue; then it is rejected as contrary to religion; finally, it is accepted as dogma and each scientist claims that he had long appreciated its truth."
     Need I say more ?
     Well, this is also to wish all of you a better new year in 2006 and abundant health and happiness, plus more "lurking" syrphids in the net ! Cheers,
  KUMAR 


Frank Dziock <frank.dziock at ufz.de> wrote:  Dear syrphid friends!

Thanks to the work and the web-space of Bastiaan Wakkie, the
presentations of the 3rd International Syrphidae Symposium in Leiden
are now available as pdfs at the following URL:

www.syrphidae.com/symposia.php

Please note, that the results in these presentations have not been
published! Their availability on the web does not mean, that they
could be cited in any form. Please if you want to cite them or use
them, in any case, ask the authors in advance!

If you have photos from the Symposium and even from previous symposiums
you can send them to Bastiaan as he is preparing a photo section next to
the symposium presentations to give a better presentation.

Presentations from Germany and Spain are welcome too!

Thank you very much!

With all the best wishes for Christmas and a happy new year,

Frank




-- 
Dr. Frank Dziock
Umweltforschungszentrum Leipzig-Halle GmbH - Centre for Environmental Research
Dept. Naturschutzforschung - Conservation Biology
Permoser Str. 15
04318 Leipzig
Germany
Tel. ++49 341 235 2533
Fax ++49 341 235 3191





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Dr Kumar Ghorpade, B.Sc.(Agri.),M.Sc.,Ph.D (Entomol.).
Smithsonian Institution (U.S.A.) Postdoctoral Fellow (1982-1983).
Systematic Entomologist & Post-Graduate Teacher in Entomology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwar 580 05, Karnataka (India).
Postal address: C/o Doddagubbi P.O., Bangalore 562 149, INDIA.
Send instant messages to your online friends http://in.messenger.yahoo.com 
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