Re: The Vinland Map's Ink

On Wed, 04 May 2005 19:39:46 -0500, Tom McDonald
<tmcdonald2672@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Steve Marcus wrote:
>> "Eric Stevens" <eric.stevens@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:jlnf71lmtgrqivf9fpjudrg6nm4k59ui3h@xxxxxxxxxx
>
><snip>
>
>> How will you ever *know* that you have all the information??
>>
>> I'll answer the question myself: You'll *know* that you have all the
>> information when the information reaches a conclusion that you or your
>> client (not necessarily the same thing) want to reach.
>
>Steve,
>
> I don't find evidence for this allegation. AFAICS, Eric appears
>to be the consummate professional in his business dealings. Of
>course, we only have his e-presence to judge from; but he seems
>very consistent to me. The only thing I can recall that mars his
>objectivity here was his reaction to the announcement of the fake
>AVM stone.

I didn't spot this the first time round. There are lawyers who will
shop around until they get an expert who gives them the opinion they
want. Some of them will hire experts whose opinions they don't want
merely to render them unavailable to the other side in the case. There
are experts who will give a lawyer any opinion the lawyer wants, but
these experts become known and generally go down very badly with
judges.

I have twice had the experience of giving a major (insurance company)
client an opinion that was very much the reverse of what they wanted
to hear, and then have the opinion leak to the opposing side who
immediately subpoenaed me. Although on both occasions, in court I gave
my opinion exactly as I had given it the first time, and my original
clients lost in both cases, I still do work for both the clients and
the lawyers concerned.

Honesty is supposed to be the best policy but I find that telling it
as it is and being sure of your facts is an even better policy. In
particular, if you don't know, say so. If you can't fully justify a
conclusion, don't try to reach it but qualify it as 'possible' or some
such. In any case, don't let someone bully you into saying something
you don't want to say.

>
> He gets lumped in with Johansson and Seppo (very unfairly,
>IMNSHO) because of his propensity to require, as David pointed
>out, a level of evidence that is very nearly never present in
>archaeology.

It's not so much that I require the evidence as that I object to
people reaching conclusions as firmly as if the evidence was there. If
the evidence isn't there, you can't know, no matter how positively you
hold forth.

>And his tenacity, come to that, in defending that
>propensity. He has explained why he doesn't often take exception
>to the above-named worthies, and I for one believe him. He has
>recently talked truth to powder wrt the anatase business. I'd
>like to see more of this; but that's his choice.
>
> I don't think his actual tentative assessments of most of the
>stuff we discuss is very different from yours, or from mine. If
>someone put a gun to his head, I think you'd find that out.
>(Please, do not attempt this at home, or in NZ!) But whatever the
>case, I don't see the point in questioning Eric's professional
>integrity.

Lawyers tend to see things differently from the rest of us. Of course,
the best of them are straight shooters also.



Eric Stevens

.

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