Continued

During this I ran into my favorite professor from my uni. days, & excitedly started telling him what we had done, how, & what we had achieved, I thought he'd be interested. He wasn't, cutting me off, & telling me that sort of stuff would never work. I'm not quite sure how he'd missed of the fact that it had, did, & was doing so. I was disappointed he was not interested, but really surprised he did not want to learn what had worked.

I have found this is standard with our insular academics. Marine biologists at AIMS & James Cook were totally dismissive of the experience & knowledge of some pretty bright engineers who spent most of their life on the reef. They are only interested in their own incestuous little world, not even inquiring what qualifications & experience a dive instructor, who dived the reef daily might have, before dismissing them.

These academics are pretty bad value. I had a couple of very highly qualified marine biologists working as dive instructors, because they wanted to be in the real thing, not in an office diving in a computer

Oh come on Hasbeen and Individual. How many 'academics' have you actually known in your insular 'non-academic world?
There are many academics who have done wonderful work in saving many native animals from extinction.

I'm assuming you never bother with Doctors, Dentists or Vets, given they are all academics?
You can't just tar all academics with the same brush as if you know them all.

That would be like me suggesting that all non-academic people are boring, monosyllabic, Neanderthal morons...

Suse, reading Hasbeen's post I have come to realise all the conserves on here are old farts over 90, mostly suffering from the latter stages of dementia. They all hang out at the same old folks home. When not having a rousing game of bingo, and sisters not looking, they lob on the homes puter and post guff on the forum, it fills in the waking hours between the nanna naps. Don't worry fellas sister will be around soon with your nightly medication.

Lol Paul : )
I don't mind the oldies having their say, as long as they are wise too!
Old doesn't always mean wise, or even nice...

Suse you have a very different idea of academia to the one I was taught, & to the belief of academics themselves.

To an academic, doctors, dentists, vets & & BScs are mere tradesmen, never to be considered in the same breath as themselves.

Academics are people who live in ivory towers, never considering anything as crude as applying their trade for profit. Having to actually earn a living is so far beneath them the mere thought makes most of them quite ill. We are supposed to support them to do little more than think, something most of them are not good at anyway. They do descend occasionally to do a little teaching, but they find that so distasteful, they do it as rarely as possible.

The majority crave tenure, which in Oz means they can do absolutely nothing useful for the rest of their worthless lives, but still be very well kept in considerable comfort, by the taxpayer. This description of them should convince you, I have known more than I wish to remember.

And come on yourself. David Attenborough, a Television documentary narrator has done more to save wildlife than a ship load of academics.

This lack of understanding of each other I find rather interesting. I wonder how often many of us here, are talking past each other, totally misunderstanding each others meaning, mislead by different understanding of our common language. I wonder if we could find we have more in common on many subjects, if we really did understand what the other wanted to convey?

Paul, if you cuddle a couple of bricks, & jump into a swimming pool, they will take you to the bottom. Blow some bubbles, & they will go up to the surface.

Do this a few hundred times & even you may learn which way is up, I doubt it, but almost anything is possible if you get lucky.

Suse,

"There are many academics who have done wonderful work in saving many native animals from extinction."

Name a couple!