From: Gene McAloon 

On Tue, 24 Jun 2003 11:02:15 GMT, John Beckett
 wrote:

>It's not controversial in the sense that it is essentially a semantic
>issue, and has no practical consequence.
>
>However, I posted two good references that clearly disagree with you. The
>sources are hardly authoritative, but unless you are hiding something from
>us, they strike me as more likely to be "true" than your version.

I have already stated that my "version" comes straight from the
latest Encyclopedia Britannica edition. It is true that sometimes even
encyclopedias can be mistaken if an article hasn't been updated in a long
time, but that is not the case here.

It is also true that if I were to dig further into relevant literature I
would find this or that odd study or paper claiming something to the
contrary. But the
EB articles are usually based on the accepted consensus in the field.  I
think that is good enough, sufficiently authoritative if you want to put it
that way.

Your sources, I am afraid, don't qualify as much more than the musings of people
with no real backgrounds in this kind of stuff. They may be useful in
telling you how your microwave oven works, but that is about it.

Gene

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-4