S. Finer wrote:

> There has to be a better way than this.  I generally read the NYTs on 
> Tuedays for the Science section, and WISH that they would print the email 
> addresses of the some of the specialists they quote, together with 
> citations to their pubs, and other background details.  

While I'll agree that footnotes in the online editions of technical 
articles would be a good thing, I don't think including the expert's 
e-mail addresses would be that wise. Having known more than a few 
scientists during my days at NASA, I found that most of them were 
already too overburdened with work, especially unwelcome 
correspondence, to welcome e-mail from strangers seeking more 
information. The public's right to know needs to be balanced by the 
individual's right to go about their own business without dealing 
with overflowing e-mail boxes. Of course, if some expert wanted to 
freely give out their id, more power to them but I wouldn't make it a 
rule to include expert e-mail addresses.

Steven
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols                    sjvn@access.digex.net
                Contributing Editor - Interchange & WebWeek
QOTD: "The difference between the right word and the wrong word is as big as
the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." -- Mark Twain

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