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Re: Response to Cohen's $2500 offer



Re Mr. Muckerheide's staunch defense of Bernie Cohen:

1.  You totally missed the point, Jim (but Bernie did not); that is perhaps
excusable.

2.  What may well be inexcusable is that you are guilty of the very thing
you accuse others of, as exemplified by this extract from your response:

"How do indoor radon measurements/correlations get affected by snow cover/soil
moisture? :-)   This kind of unscientific rationalization pervades the
questions and questioners of Bernie's (and others') rigorously,
scientifically-developed, results. Others pick up such pejorative "questions"
and treat them as serious scientific questions and even uncertainties,
supporting the linear model campaign to raid the public purse."

It is well known that snow cover and soil moisture affect outdoor airborne
radon concentrations; I daresay the effect on indoor levels has not been
well studied.  The question is legitimate; it is unquestionably not
"unscientific rationalization".  To reject this question out of hand, and
especially with the subsequent editorializing and totally unsubstantiated
statement is not at all in keeping with the spirit of free and open inquiry,
which we as scientists should never lose, nor should we chastised for
demonstrating. 

Ron Kathren, CHP  
kathren@tricity.WSU.edu