> I did NOT quote "the press". Yes, you did. :) The quote you lifted was from an Associated Press wire service story written by a reporter named Andrew Bridges. If you run the phrase: "it's certainly more than a smoking gun -- more like a smoking arsenal." through Google, you'll find several copies of the complete article. > I quoted Dr. May Berenbaum, Nope, you never heard her say that - you merely quoted an AP story, written by Andrew Bridges. The story was edited by Lord only knows who or how many people. The story quoted May Berenbaum, and may or may have not even gotten the quote right. Given the accuracy of the reporting to date, they might not even have put the right name on the quote - they might have been quoting Mae West! That's why they are called "stories". Some are fact, some are unintentional fiction, most are a mix. Regardless, listen to the press conference audio. The actual authors of the paper openly and overtly deny that they have found any sort of "smoking gun". Now, regardless of the many fine qualifications that May Berenbaum lists on her CV, she was not an author of the paper, so if the authors themselves disagree with her characterization of the paper they wrote, and she does not offer any basis for disagreeing with them, then it is reasonable to say that (if the quote was accurate) she "got it wrong". If May wants to support her divergent view with some factoids, then maybe we can consider her argument. But she offered no argument to contradict or reinterpret the paper or the verbal statements of the authors, so she merely offered a cutesy comment, a turn of phrase. No smoke. No gun. ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************