Re: Wells papers - a refreshing change

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Posted by Richard Wells on April 03, 2002 at 02:12:53:

In Reply to: Re: Wells papers - a refreshing change posted by Richard Mastenbroek on March 24, 2002 at 09:38:52:

Hello Richard!

Yes I have photos of all the new and/or re-described taxa, plus virtually all other species of the Australian Reptilia. If you would like photos of any or even all species I would be pleased to help. You may be interested to know that I intend eventually placing the illustrations on the Internet so that others may use them free of charge. However, many of the photos have been taken by my colleagues and I do need to obtain their permission before doing this. Shouldn't be a problem with most photographers though. Hopefully, I should be able to make a start on this project after I finish moving house this year. Any urgent requests for photos however will be attended to.
As you may already know Richard, Graham Gow and I have prepared a book on the ecology and behaviour of the Australian Reptilia and many of the available photos will appear in this work first. The publication is mercifully not too far off.

On another matter Richard, I have noted the quite distressing comments made between yourself and Raymond Hoser (and others) and I should just like to say a couple of things in your favour.

I have read all your posts and found them interesting and informative. I found the illustrations you placed on the Net enjoyable to look at as well. Why does Raymond say such things? But don't worry you are not alone. I know from my own experience that Raymond may say less than pleasant things about others. For instance in one of his books his comments regarding the theft of my reptile collection (in 1967!) have been interpreted by others to mean that I blamed individuals connected to the Mafia for the theft!!!! I never did such a thing and I was very upset about this. Whether Raymond intended this or not...who knows. But I got over it fairly quickly. When I was the President of the Australian Herpetological Society I had to regularly endure Raymond's criticisms from the audience. Sometimes his comments were taken on board and others chucked in the bin. But it wasn't a very enjoyable time when Raymond started on us. Along with another individual of similar background they would lambast me and the AHS Committee for virtually anything that took their fancy. Raymond can be a fairly emotional and provocative speaker when in full flight and I have no doubt that he his highly intelligent, but his comments significantly affected the AHS meetings usually in a negative way. Now as to whether he wanted to destroy the Society or just try and make things better I don't know. He could have just come up to any of the Executive and discuss his perceived problems with the Society but that just wasn't Raymond's style. He would elevate our relatively insignificant mistakes or policies into monuments of incompetance with just a few words. The attending membership and visitors would start arguing and hurl abuse at Raymond, but he would just go on and on. I have no doubt that his vocal monthly criticisms of the AHS at the time cost us a lot of members. His co-hort at the time is now recently deceased so I shall not mention his name, but he would similarly hurl abuse and make all sorts of disruptive remarks both at meetings and amongst the membership at large by periodically visiting them like some sort of grim reaper of bad news about others. One only a couple of occasions did I ever come close to losing my cool. At the particular meeting both he and Hoser were in full form lobbing abuse at me as I Chaired a meeting with over 100 people in attendance. When I had the audacity to disprove their criticisms about allegations of illegal collecting activities on AHS field trips, I was called anti-semitic!! I didn't even know they were Jewish! Nor did I care. Racism is NOT one of my many failings. On another occasion Hoser's colleague even went so far as to say from the audience that my girlfriend was a slut and I was so enraged that the Australian Museum Security guards had to escort me from the meeting room after I climbed over several rows of the membership to settle the score. I could give many examples of Raymondiana but we all probably have our own little pecularities that must annoy the hell out of others. Annoyance and allegations of criminality are different matters though. Raymond placed a very serious smear over your character when he implied that you were a wildlife smuggler. As a past Customs Officer myself I can tell you that what Raymond did was very serious indeed and I can fully understand your anger and hurt.
I think that you should demand that Raymond send you an apology and a complete retraction of the allegation as a post on this forum without delay.
Anyway, I look forward to assisting you in your herpetological endeavours in any way possible, so don't hesitate to ask.

With Kind Regards from,

Richard Wells

: Are there any pictures of the re-named snakes, so we know were we ead about, I only know the old-named species.

: regards,

: Richard Mastenbroek (Mr Taipan)

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Who's died? Raymond Hoser 04/03/02 (0)

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: Hello Richard! : Yes I have photos of all the new and/or re-described taxa, plus virtually all other species of the Australian Reptilia. If you would like photos of any or even all species I would be pleased to help. You may be interested to know that I intend eventually placing the illustrations on the Internet so that others may use them free of charge. However, many of the photos have been taken by my colleagues and I do need to obtain their permission before doing this. Shouldn't be a problem with most photographers though. Hopefully, I should be able to make a start on this project after I finish moving house this year. Any urgent requests for photos however will be attended to. : As you may already know Richard, Graham Gow and I have prepared a book on the ecology and behaviour of the Australian Reptilia and many of the available photos will appear in this work first. The publication is mercifully not too far off. : On another matter Richard, I have noted the quite distressing comments made between yourself and Raymond Hoser (and others) and I should just like to say a couple of things in your favour. : I have read all your posts and found them interesting and informative. I found the illustrations you placed on the Net enjoyable to look at as well. Why does Raymond say such things? But don't worry you are not alone. I know from my own experience that Raymond may say less than pleasant things about others. For instance in one of his books his comments regarding the theft of my reptile collection (in 1967!) have been interpreted by others to mean that I blamed individuals connected to the Mafia for the theft!!!! I never did such a thing and I was very upset about this. Whether Raymond intended this or not...who knows. But I got over it fairly quickly. When I was the President of the Australian Herpetological Society I had to regularly endure Raymond's criticisms from the audience. Sometimes his comments were taken on board and others chucked in the bin. But it wasn't a very enjoyable time when Raymond started on us. Along with another individual of similar background they would lambast me and the AHS Committee for virtually anything that took their fancy. Raymond can be a fairly emotional and provocative speaker when in full flight and I have no doubt that he his highly intelligent, but his comments significantly affected the AHS meetings usually in a negative way. Now as to whether he wanted to destroy the Society or just try and make things better I don't know. He could have just come up to any of the Executive and discuss his perceived problems with the Society but that just wasn't Raymond's style. He would elevate our relatively insignificant mistakes or policies into monuments of incompetance with just a few words. The attending membership and visitors would start arguing and hurl abuse at Raymond, but he would just go on and on. I have no doubt that his vocal monthly criticisms of the AHS at the time cost us a lot of members. His co-hort at the time is now recently deceased so I shall not mention his name, but he would similarly hurl abuse and make all sorts of disruptive remarks both at meetings and amongst the membership at large by periodically visiting them like some sort of grim reaper of bad news about others. One only a couple of occasions did I ever come close to losing my cool. At the particular meeting both he and Hoser were in full form lobbing abuse at me as I Chaired a meeting with over 100 people in attendance. When I had the audacity to disprove their criticisms about allegations of illegal collecting activities on AHS field trips, I was called anti-semitic!! I didn't even know they were Jewish! Nor did I care. Racism is NOT one of my many failings. On another occasion Hoser's colleague even went so far as to say from the audience that my girlfriend was a slut and I was so enraged that the Australian Museum Security guards had to escort me from the meeting room after I climbed over several rows of the membership to settle the score. I could give many examples of Raymondiana but we all probably have our own little pecularities that must annoy the hell out of others. Annoyance and allegations of criminality are different matters though. Raymond placed a very serious smear over your character when he implied that you were a wildlife smuggler. As a past Customs Officer myself I can tell you that what Raymond did was very serious indeed and I can fully understand your anger and hurt. : I think that you should demand that Raymond send you an apology and a complete retraction of the allegation as a post on this forum without delay. : Anyway, I look forward to assisting you in your herpetological endeavours in any way possible, so don't hesitate to ask. : With Kind Regards from, : : Richard Wells : : Are there any pictures of the re-named snakes, so we know were we ead about, I only know the old-named species. : : regards, : : Richard Mastenbroek (Mr Taipan)

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