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I was curious about the author so I looked up his profile on the University of Delaware website [1]. Despite being listed as a Professor of Electrical & Compute

by nhebb 14y ago

I was curious about the author so I looked up his profile on the University of Delaware website [1]. Despite being listed as a Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, his educational background is in Sociology and Anthropology. There are times when an appeal to authority is valid - such as an expert witness in a court of law. When it comes to scientific or engineering matters, I like to see some credentialed authority behind the research. Otherwise, I'm highly skeptical since this is the first source that I've seen to claim such a high percentage of green energy as the source for all power consumption. [1] http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/people/profile.aspx?willett http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/people/profile.aspx?willett

mahesh_rm 14y ago
To some extents, I agree with you. On the other hand, I am not sure a background in engineering would provide more source's epistemic authority than one in sociology, in this context. Interpreting Geist is a complex practice, and the presumption to reverse engineering it may be naively and implicitly leading to failure.
arrrg 14y ago
The only problem with that is that Willett Kempton is not the primary author and the primary author very definitely does have an engineering background (bachelor of engineering in 2007, PhD candidate in electrical engineering). Running down the list of other authors we have a bachelor of ocean engineering, currently a graduate student in the same field, a master in oceanography and current PhD student as well as one student with more of a policy focus plus the aforementioned professor. Your comment is ignorant and lazy. Appeals to authority can be valid, sure, but when you make them you better be damn sure you are doing it correctly, for example by quickly glancing at the abstract. Here is the actual paper: http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/windpower/resources/BudischakEtAl-2013-CostMinimizedWindSolarPJM.pdf http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/windpower/resources/BudischakEtAl-2... Have at it.

by nhebb 14y ago

mahesh_rm 14y ago

To some extents, I agree with you. On the other hand, I am not sure a background in engineering would provide more source's epistemic authority than one in sociology, in this context. Interpreting Geist is a complex practice, and the presumption to reverse engineering it may be naively and implicitly leading to failure.

arrrg 14y ago

The only problem with that is that Willett Kempton is not the primary author and the primary author very definitely does have an engineering background (bachelor of engineering in 2007, PhD candidate in electrical engineering). Running down the list of other authors we have a bachelor of ocean engineering, currently a graduate student in the same field, a master in oceanography and current PhD student as well as one student with more of a policy focus plus the aforementioned professor. Your comment is ignorant and lazy. Appeals to authority can be valid, sure, but when you make them you better be damn sure you are doing it correctly, for example by quickly glancing at the abstract. Here is the actual paper: http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/windpower/resources/BudischakEtAl-2013-CostMinimizedWindSolarPJM.pdf http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/windpower/resources/BudischakEtAl-2... Have at it.