Talk:Durk Pearson

untitled initial thread

"He took a triple major at MIT in physics, biology, and psychology, with a triple minor in electrical engineering, computer science, and chemistry, graduating with a B.S. in physics in 1965. His score on the Graduate Record Exam was the highest in the nation for that year."

I'm calling BS on this. Triple major and triple minor, and to have the highest GRE score, he would either

have to be the only perfect score that year, or the highest score in a year in which there was no perfect score;

both very unlikely. Where are all the Wikiweenies who insist that everything has to be citable from a published

source? Hmmm? I think Durk is smart, I just don't believe these two sentences. Looks like a DP prank to me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.49.77.67 (talk) 20:38, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

merge proposal

I propose the article be moved to "Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw", the content from Sandy Shaw merged into it, and the original names redirected to the common article. They are known as a unity, have done their work as such, etc. 72.228.177.92 (talk) 15:48, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Also some statement on their current physical condition, whether they make media appearances, etc., i.e. the actual results of their application of their approach to themselves now that they are in their late sixties is of natural interest/relevance. 72.228.177.92 (talk) 15:50, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Sourcing

The article is largely unsourced. Rather than wholesale removal of parts of the article, locating sources would be preferable. Also I've restored the source for his MIT major removed without explanation. Eudemis (talk) 08:09, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

See WP:BURDEN and WP:SOURCES. "Any material lacking a reliable source directly supporting it may be removed". These guidelines are also relevant to the (mis)use of newspaper articles on dieting to document academic qualifications.

Re comment above "source for his MIT major removed without explanation": the edit comment for the deletion was 'article "lose weight without dieting" not good ref for MIT degree. other unrefd & nn deleted'. Pol098 (talk) 12:56, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

The news article need not be about his education and the source article removed is from a "reliable, third-party, published source with a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy." and a source that "directly support(s) the material as it is presented in an article" Reread WP:Burden. Additionally the removed source for his Space Shuttle involvement need not be about NASA. Given your concerns, I've submitted the issue for comment at WP:3.

The source article for his triple major at MIT was [1] "Lose weight without dieting, exercise?" that included "Pearson graduated from MIT in 1965 with a triple major: biology, physics and psychology." The source article for his Space Shuttle involvement was [2] "Two Fitness Faddists Have a No. 1 Best-Seller, but Are They Stretching Life Spans or Truth?" to support the removed text, "He assisted with equipment design and experiments for NASA's Space Shuttle." The source article includes, "Pearson, meanwhile, served as a physicist for the aerospace firm TRW and, under contract to NASA, helped design equipment and experiments for the space shuttle."Eudemis (talk) 17:09, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Third opinion: While it can seem a little heavy handed to just remove huge swaths of text, it is technically the right thing to do per WP:BLP. Remember, living person biographies are held to the most stringent criteria, so unsourced claims should probably be removed. What I've seen done on several other articles is that the text is moved to the talk page until a reference can be found, and then it's put back in.

Now as to the specific issues above - the claim about his triple major is verified by that source, so it can be included. The same is true of the other claim as well. I've reincluded those into the article with appropriate headings.

As a side note, this article needs a lot of work. No article should start with "Durk Pearson was born in 1943 and grew up on a farm in Illinois." The lead should tell me when he was born and what he's notable for. — HelloAnnyong ^{(say whaaat?!)} 19:09, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm still of the opinion that newspaper articles on dieting are not likely to be reliable sources for academic qualifications in physics (in my experience a reporter will ask about qualifications and print them without checking, but I may be wrong). However, there are two people who disagree so I'll say no more. I do consider that better references are needed, and should exist if the information is correct. Vast swathes of text, if completely unreferenced information, some of which does not seem particularly notable, do need some sort of backing if they are to be included .

"What I've seen done on several other articles is that the text is moved to the talk page until a reference can be found". The text of the article before my first edit, deleting text as unreferenced or not notable, is not lost, it's here, and the differences are here. Best wishes Pol098 (talk) 23:24, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

That's fine. I meant it more as, people keep the text on talk pages (or user subpages) because it's a more consolidated list, rather than having to check diffs of old pages versus what's been added to the article. — HelloAnnyong ^{(say whaaat?!)} 01:57, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Deleted text

Below is the prior unsourced version of the article for reference:

Durk Pearson was born in 1943 and grew up on a farm in Illinois. He was reading by the age of four, and decided to become a scientist at that early age. While a student at MIT, he was a member of the MIT Science Fiction Society and one of the writers for the early underground comic God Comics. He took a triple major at MIT in physics, biology, and psychology with a triple minor in electrical engineering, computer science, and chemistry, graduating with a B.S. in physics in 1965. His score on the Graduate Record Exam was the highest in the nation for that year. Durk has patents in the area of oil shale and tar sands recovery, lasers, holography, supplement formulations. He worked on all of the manned aerospace programs from Project Gemini to the Space Shuttle and won numerous awards, including an award from the International Society for Testing and Failure Analysis (a professional organization) for his penetrating quality control and safety analysis. He wrote much of the safety manual for the Materials and Processing Laboratory on the Shuttle.

Publications

Durk co-author of Life Extension: A Practical Scientific Approach (ISBN 0-446-51229-X, Warner Books, 1982), The Life Extension Companion (Warner Books), The Life Extension Weight Loss Manual, and Freedom of Informed Choice: FDA v. Nutrient Supplements, (Common Sense Press, 1993). He and Sandy Shaw have co-authored numerous articles on Life extension, cognitive enhancement, Anti-aging, Weight loss, and other aspects of nutrition and produced the Durk Pearson & Sandy Shaw Life Extension News which can be downloaded at no charge from Life-Enhancement.

Media Appearances

Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw have appeared on over 300 television programs, including several appearances on Larry King Live. They have appeared in many TV documentaries about aging, including two by the BBC, one by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and even on Japanese TV. During the period of 1978 to 1986, they appeared over 30 times on The Merv Griffin Show, including the final "goodbye" program. With Merv's permission, Durk once offered a selected reading list of life extension literature for laypersons on one of the shows. Over 100,000 people wrote in to request copies of the list. Never before had a TV show caused such a viewer response and The Merv Griffin Show sent out a press release including a photo of Durk buried up to his neck in mail bags. Durk and Sandy Shaw have been featured in interviews and articles in The Wall Street Journal (a front page story on them), Omni (magazine), Penthouse (magazine), Playgirl, Forbes, Newsweek, People (magazine), US Weekly, Fit, The American Druggist, PSA Magazine, Longevity, Men's Journal, as well as magazines in France, Germany, and Japan.

Television, Film, and Video

Durk and Sandy Shaw wrote, designed the stunts, and acted as technical advisers for an episode of The Wonderful World of Disney, which aired in 1978, called "Black Holes, Monsters That Eat Space and Time." They acted as scientific and technical advisers and received screen credits for the Clint Eastwood movie Firefox (film), designing special effects for all the scenes after Clint got into the Firefox cockpit. They also acted as scientific and technical advisers and received screen credits for Douglas Trumbull's movie Brainstorm (1983 film), starring Natalie Wood. In 1988, Durk and Sandy Shaw released "Life Extension, the Video," produced by Ray Schwartz. The video was designed to explain to the layperson some of the material from all three of their best-selling books on aging, health, weight-loss, and nutrition. Also in 1988, they co-authored with Steve Sharon The Dead Pool, a high-tech thriller, which was sold to Warner Bros. and made into a popular Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry movie. Durk and Sandy Shaw also have a cameo appearance in the funeral scene. Eudemis (talk) 23:36, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

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Has Durk Pearson passed on?

Has Durk Pearson passed on? ChatGPT told me, after a direct question, that "The source of Durk Pearson's passing on October 4, 2021, is from an obituary published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on October 8, 2021."

Regarding Sandy Shaw, ChatGPT says "The source of Sandy Shaw's passing on November 24, 2020, is from an obituary published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on December 1, 2020."

I am unable to find either online. Any ideas? Madman (talk) 05:17, 4 June 2023 (UTC)

ChatGPT says that it is using data from its training database: "In the case of the Legacy.com obituary for Durk Pearson, I provided the text of the obituary based on my training data, which may have been incorrect or outdated." I am pressing ChatGPT on this matter, but it seems that this application has gone off the rails a bit. Weird stuff. It also supplied me with the Washington Post obituary, but I can't find certain diagnostic phrases ("Durk Warren Pearson") anywhere on the internet.

When I pressed ChatGPT on this, it said: "Upon further research, I have found that there might not have been an obituary for Durk Pearson published in The Washington Post. " Wow, talk about fake news !!

You can stand down now.  :) Madman (talk) 03:41, 5 June 2023 (UTC)