"Harry Potter and the Seguin Gazette's Cheshire Cat"

Oh yeah, I forgot the link to the cached article.

Catch it while you can!

Cheers, Dave

LOL!

This would actually be a good thing if they were honest enough to publish a retraction too.

I noticed earlier today that searching the The Seguin Gazette-Enterprise site for "Pianka" returned zero hits.

I had no idea they could be this stupid!

This Pianka affair has become a shameless witch-hunt. Let those who are without sin cast the first stone.

I did find one bit of Pianka still on the Seguin G-E's site:

http://seguingazette.com/photos/2006.April/Eric%20Pianka's%20comment%20on%20terrorism.mp3

Of course, as soon as they remember it....
(as the Rev says: [shrug])

After the http://, it should read:
seguingazette.com/photos/2006.April/Eric%20Pianka's%20comment%20on%20terrorism.mp3
rassin-frassin looong urls.

Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.

You can write a letter to the Seguin Gazette Enterprise at http://seguingazette.com/letter.lasso.

For comment #95451, Try http://seguingazette.com/photos/2006.April/Eric%20Pianka%27s%20comment%20on%20terrorism.mp3

Not very good audio.
Someone wants a yes-or-no answer.

I know this is a witch hunt by creationists... but it doesn't help that Pianka has a "crazy guy on the bus" beard...

"Death is imminent for MOST humans"?

Pray tell, how do I join the group for whom death is not such a threat?

SEGUIN - Nutty Buddy is having a crisis

I just looked at Drudge's archives, couldn't find anything for "Pianka" or "Mims". Is there some kind of virus spreading?

Red Man, it wouldn't surprise me. At first, drudge's link was something like "Crazy Professor wants to murder 90% of humanity", and after a day or so that was changed to something like "Professor provokes controversy after lecture".

Somebody check the Seguin Gazette masthead. Is Davetard the editor in chief?
http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2006/02/davescot_steps_in_it_again_ort.php

If I were Pianka, I'd humiliate them my threatening to sue the Seguin Gazette, whoever runs those DI blogs, various radio hosts, and I presume, though nobody's mentioned it yet, Fox News, and offer to drop the lawsuits in return for the host performing, on the relevant show/site, an apology on one day for every day the show/site ran the stories about me.

It's likely that the Seguin Gazette has one or two trained journalists on the staff, or an attorney on retainer who has at least a pedestrian knowledge of libel law. The articles against Pianka were inadequately researched, loaded with dubious claims that are defamatory (especially since it convinced at least one citizen to call the FBI to allege criminality -- a clear measure that the content defamed) and inaccurately so, in my opinion as a journalism graduate, journalist, flacker for government agencies that investigate wrongdoing, and lawyer. Yes, it would be wise for the paper to issue a retraction along with simply pulling down the content; but they may be hoping to argue for "constructive retraction."

It may also be that the University of Texas got in the act. Were I a lawyer for the school, I would have urged that letters be sent to each outlet that distributed the inaccurate stuff, spelling out libel law in Texas and their own jurisdiction, and pointing specifically to the inaccuracies in the story. Since the office of the Governor of Texas has gotten involved, it is clear that there are real effects of internet pranks. The defamation and allegations of criminality extend not only to Pianka, but also to the University of Texas. Taking shots at a lowly professor might be fun to those who oppose science and especially evolution, but taking shots at a major research university and making reckless allegations strays into yet another category of intemperate behavior that exposes the actor to civil liability, and perhaps other liability as well.

Taking the articles down is a minor win for rationality. Watch for the retraction.

Heads up - Uncommon Descent seems to be down at the moment..

"especially since it convinced at least one citizen to call the FBI to allege criminality"

Calling Bill Dembski a "citizen" is a bit much, don't you think?

"You call Liberty Valance a MAN?!?"
- Edmund O'Brien, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,1962

Boy, Uncommon Descent sure dropped Pianka like a hot potato, didn't they?

more like a red-hot poker they thought they could torture scientists with, until they realized they grabbed the wrong end of it.

They held on to it long enough for permanent scars to be left tho.

The Google Cache that you linked to only contained the first part of the story, a little more than was on the front page picture. Because it is a cache page, when you click on the link for page 2, it says that it has not been found. However, this Google cache works for the whole article:
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:opRFOCovItQJ:www.seguingazette.com/story.lasso%3Ftool%3Dprint%26ewcd%3D3a54ecf401da6005++site:www.seguingazette.com+seguin+gazette+enterprise+pianka&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4

Also, the link to the mp3 didn't work when I tried it, but I found it with google cache and downloaded it. I think I'll put it up on my blog. But here's the cache link that I got for it.
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:RWLAVI7ZdV4J:seguingazette.com/story.lasso%3Fewcd%3Da70cd49d510cbdce+seguin+gazette+enterprise+pianka&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=10
Karl

Red Right Hand, Dembski is a citizen and has the rights of any other person, to say otherwise would be no different than when G.HW. Bush said that atheists weren't citizens. As for whether or not he is being a responsible citizen...

"Red Right Hand, Dembski is a citizen and has the rights of any other person, to say otherwise would be no different than when G.HW. Bush said that atheists weren't citizens. As for whether or not he is being a responsible citizen..."

No! You don't say? I'll bear that in mind, thanks.

BTW, you need new batteries for your Irony Meter; try cribbing the double A's from your Sensitivity Monitor.

Sorry IM, I didn't mean so much snark in my response to you. I understand what you're saying, and I really wasn't implying that I thought Bill didn't deserve citizenship. It was just a joke, as the movie quotation tried to show.

Cheers!

Here's a transcript of the single question the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise reporter asked Dr. Pianka.
The file is 780K, 39 secs with four seconds of no data at end.
Original file name: Eric Pianka's comment on terrorism.mp3

G-E = Gazette-Enterprise Interviewer - Unknown female.
Pianka = Eric Pianka

G-E: My question is, do you believe that this is something that's going to come about naturally? Do you believe that it's

something that humanity needs to take a step (garbled - "shickasz"?) because that's what's being said

Pianka: Oh...

G-E: ... and there's a big difference in that.

Pianka: Oh, I think that um (garbled) terrorists that would be taking one of these and one of those other ones and trying to

combine em so they had a microbe that they could loose on the earth would kill 90 percent of the people, I don't think they're

that sophisticated.

G-E: Ok, but yes or no question, do you advocate that?

Pianka: I don't advocate killing people,

The file ends abruptly here, with four seconds of no audio before the file ends. The G-E Interviewer _might_ be heard saying the

first part of "Ok" to Pianka's answer in the last milliseconds of the audio, but it may be a bit of noise.

Red Right Hand, no problem about the snarkiness. Yeah, I realized it was a joke... but when you mentioned a movie quote I didn't realize I had missed part of your comment. I forgot to recharge the irony meter batteries - I use rechargable Nickel Metal-Hydride AAs. They run out fast. Ahh, here's the problem, the threshold on my sensitivity monitor was set to "Quote Mine," let me turn it down... :)

Well, Monday is here, and the Seguin Gazette still has the headlines pages for the Pianka stories of April 2nd, 4th and 5th on-line. I suppose I owe all here a virtual bottle of beer!

That said, it's worth noting that virtually every other mention of Eric Pianka, or even the Seguin Gazette reporter, Jamie Mobley, has been sanitized from the website. I imagine they wished they could recall all the printed copies of those papers, too.

My Next Virtual Wager: will the Seguin-Gazette explain why they've pulled all their stories off-line, or will they just hope the world will forget this incident ever happened?

I don't understand what good it does them to take the material off the Web. The Gazette-Enterprise is a real newspaper, at least in the sense that it uses ink on newsprint. Besides being archived on the Web, the article will be available in the local library or on microfilm forever. Won't they ultimately have to issue a retraction? After, that is, they figure out how to weasel-word it appropriately? Or do they just clam up and pray that no one initiates legal action? Perhaps Mr. Darrell can comment.

This Pianka affair has become a shameless witch-hunt. Let those who are without sin cast the first stone.

IMPORTANT UPDATE

Mike Dunford has a post called The Seguin Gazette-Enterprise, My Foot, and My Mouth that explains why the Seguin Gazette mistakenly yanked the Pianka articles, and notes that they are now all back on-line.

And back they are: you can now get to the articles for April 2nd, 4th
and 5th at the Seguin Gazette.

A new mystery: in the last two stories, reporter Jamie Mobley's name has been changed to Jamie Maxfield.

Dave

It's changed back now.