Ejection in Science.

Most of us who have played or coached baseball know that violations can lead to ejection from the game. 

From Wikipedia:

In baseball, each umpire has a considerable amount of discretion, and may eject any player, coach, or manager solely on his own judgment of unsportsmanlike conduct.^[1] The ejectable offense may be an excessively heated or offensive argument with an umpire, offensive interference (contact with the catcher on a play at the plate), malicious game play (especially pitchers attempting to intentionally strike batters with the ball or a manager or coach ordering a pitcher to do so),^[2] illegally applying a foreign substance to a bat or otherwise tampering with a ball

This week, a lesson about ejection from the science game.

I learned to make presentations by asking my family (spouse, daughters) to give me feedback, and I avoided some mistakes in this fashion.

The most serious offense I saw at a conference was in a dementia and brain imaging study with an epidemiology audience.

The presenter wished to convey how seriously a patient was affected by the dementia process.

He told us that he showed the patient a picture and asked him to identify what the photo showed.

The patient said “I am sure it’s not a Volvo.”

The next slide in the presentation showed that the photo was that of “bathing beauties” on a sunny beach — i.e., possibly Swedish, but not a Volvo.

The slide did not pass my “family test.”

Herpetology and us.

Be forewarned and careful out there.

What to do when it happens?

Walk out, and then ask for ejection of the offending “player.”

(P.s. For this kind of offense, ejection can be game-wise rather than career-wise. Even in religion, “redemption” is an optimistic option. I suspect Dr. Vogt has learned an important lesson.)