On Nov 24, 7:12*pm, Quadibloc wrote:
On Nov 24, 5:04*pm, Quadibloc wrote:





On Nov 24, 4:19*am, wrote:

He wrote:

"They may even provide a service, by providing some pressure that
ensures these things really are designed to survive a launch failure."

The "may" applies only to the phrase before the comma. *The portion
after the comma is presented as a fact without any qualification.

No; the portion beginning with the word "by" is a subordinate clause
that *describes* the nature of the service that they "may" provide.

If he had written:

"They may even provide a service, and they do provide some pressure
that ensures these things really are designed to survive a launch
failure," _then_ your claim would be valid.

Come to think of it, I may not be entirely correct in dismissing the
significance of the comma so easily.

After all, I could say:

"They may even provide a service, by standing around waving their
hands in the air and making fools of themselves," and I would indeed
be implying that they were, in any event, "waving their hands in the
air and making fools of themselves", whether or not they were also, as
I was saying *may* be the case, providing a service by so doing.

You could also re-arrange the sentence:

"By providing some pressure that ensures these things really are
designed to survive a launch failure, they may even provide a
service."

But it should be obvious by now that the premise of his original
sentence was invalid and that the protesters have had no influence on
the design at all.

I think that you are still being too picky, and inferring too much
from a slight error in wording, but indeed he should really have
written:

"They may even provide a service, by providing some pressure that
could help to ensure these things really are designed to survive a
launch failure."

Even that idea that is questionable since the RTGs already have good
design. The "could" doesn't help.

However, I still will refuse to rail at him for being a closet
envirokook for such an error.

His statement looks like typical leftist propaganda and it deserves to
be criticized.

You must recall that USENET posts are
made in a casual fashion, without a great deal of time and effort
being devoted to them in most cases, and thus holding them to the
standards of an opinion piece published in one of the nation's leading
newspapers or great magazines may be unrealistic.

Many of what we read in the lamestream media is just as misleading,
although at least they occasionally check their facts.