Ah, thanks. To get some sense of scale: If you have any experience (or anyone else who has, please chime in!), how much more down-putting is he than, say, SciManDan; how bad is he "on a SciManDan scale"? :-) An appropriate comparison IMO, seeing how Dan is also famous for debunking dumb stuff.

N.B: I think Dan is pretty darn nice, even when he's being what for him is snarky. As I recall, I was much more of an arrogant a-hole myself when I was younger. (Yup, that's my exc^H^H^Hstory: I've mellowed out now, all that was only when I was young.)