NATURE to save taxonomy!

[Bill Shear]

On 6/7/02 7:24 AM, "B.J.Tindall" <bti at DSMZ.DE> wrote:

> At 10:54 6.6.2002 -0700, Doug Yanega wrote:
>
>>
>> (1) Do you, personally, believe in allowing people to self-publish
>> new taxa, virtually all of them synonyms, solely for purposes of
>> self-aggrandizement? The Codes allow it. Do you really find this
>> satisfactory?

I, personally, believe that such odd behavior, which happens in one out of
ten thousand cases, is a price well worth paying for the freedom to publish
legitimate scientific names without the interference of an outside
authority, which could make arbitrary decisions about which names would be
considered valid and which would not.  No, I don't find it satisfactory, and
ultimately neither would the authors of such names--instead of
self-aggrandisement (of a peculiarly trivial sort) they would more likely
achieve lasting infamy among those very people they hoped to impress.

Take a look at the case of Prof. Dr. Embrik Strand, if you want an example.

I really don't like this tactic of blowing minor abuses up into supposed
major problems that we have to overturn the whole system to address.

Bill Shear