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rubysue
Skeptic Friend
USA
199 Posts |
 Posted - 08/30/2001 : 17:34:46 [Permalink]
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This is a test - I've tried posting a thread twice now on this board and have been unsuccessful.
rubysue
If your head is wax, don't walk in the sun.
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rubysue
Skeptic Friend
USA
199 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2001 : 17:38:18 [Permalink]
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Ok, now that the short message worked.
My decision to quit posting on the BABB seems saner every day. Things have really gotten strange over there. I've tried twice now to post a fairly lengthy message here about Mr. Know-it-all JW's Salon article and his anti-Einstein buddies. JW talks about some newsletter he subscribed to that was started by a physics professor named Petr Beckmann at the University of Colorado. If anyone would like to point out the error of JW's ways (no volunteers?), I can tell you with 100% certainty that Petr Beckmann was NOT a physics professor.
Note: message will continue, since the board apparently doesn't like me taking time to write tonight.
rubysue
If your head is wax, don't walk in the sun.
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rubysue
Skeptic Friend
USA
199 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2001 : 17:45:45 [Permalink]
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Message continues:
Petr Beckmann was on the Electrical Engineering faculty at CU. I had him for a class in 1975 (Probability Theory - a mandatory EE undergrad class) and can personally vouch for the fact that he never taught physics. He was a pretty good teacher, but had some bizarre beliefs and ideas outside of the classroom. He subscribed to extreme right-wing political theories (Anarcho-capitalism, which makes libertarians look like apologists for Big Government) and viewed 20th century physics as a Kantian philosphical disaster that destroyed basic human "values". Beckmann and his anti-Einstein buddies that JW is so fond of are favorites of several anti-Semitic organizations (hence, their distrust in the ideas and theories developed by a German Jew). Beckmann developed a totally lunatic theory called Galilean Electrodynamics, which I couldn't even begin to understand, which tried to provide an alternate explanation for gravitational and relativistic effects. Beckmann did acknowledge some of Einstein's discoveries, but absolutely reviled special/general relativity.
Beckmann has been quoted widely by the American Spectator and by Full Context (a radical objectivist organization).
This may put JW's ideas into perspective. He says it all in this post he made earlier today. Sorry, JW, but this is ALL about politics and religion:
http://www.badastronomy.com/wwwboard/messages/13210.html
rubysue
If your head is wax, don't walk in the sun.
Edited by - rubysue on 08/30/2001 17:46:35
Edited by - rubysue on 08/30/2001 17:49:27 |
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Zandermann
Skeptic Friend
USA
431 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2001 : 18:48:04 [Permalink]
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quote:
... JW talks about some newsletter he subscribed to that was started by a physics professor named Petr Beckmann at the University of Colorado. If anyone would like to point out the error of JW's ways (no volunteers?), I can tell you with 100% certainty that Petr Beckmann was NOT a physics professor.
Beckmann's not being a physics prof had occurred to me also, Rubysue, but I've been holding to my pledge of not responding to cranks. And JW is certainly filling the 'crank' bill these days.
So I'll let him blather on...although I *am* itching terribly to blast him on his assumed mantle of martyrdom, re "Fear of Censorship, sending my response by email" etc.
"If in the last few years you haven't discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead." |
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Rift
Skeptic Friend
USA
333 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2001 : 19:04:07 [Permalink]
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I'm real close to stop posting over there too. Seems that I can't control myself once I do start posting to idiots like JW.
He's such a hypocrite. Cries censorship but then thinks that posting a link is a 'personal' attack.
And I thought I was doing good :(
"Goddammit! The world is just filling up with more and more idiots! And the computer is giving them access to the world! They're
spreading their stupidity! At least they were contained before--now they're on the loose everywhere!"? |
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Piltdown
Skeptic Friend
USA
312 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2001 : 19:07:51 [Permalink]
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quote:
quote:
rubysue ("By the way, have you heard of Dr. Michio Kaku?"): Good gosh, I heard Kaku on the infamous Art Bell show and subsequently took him to task via email for asserting that the entire Universe is inside a black hole. He pointed out that it fits one definition of a BH in that no light can escape it, and accused me of defining a BH in unnecessarily narrow terms. I have always felt he leans too much toward sensationalism when communicating physics to general audiences, and your information reinforces that opinion.
"Even Einstein put his foot in it sometimes"
His book Hyperspace was my introduction to superstring theory, and thought it was pretty good, too. But do understand your reservations, did search out his web site and forum, all bun and no meat. *L* And for good or ill, eventually lead me to here via the BABB. Dunno, he seems to have a social agenda as well...
Kaku certainly does have a social agenda. He is a Director of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space (GNAWANPIS aka "gnaw and piss"). http://www.space4peace.org
This organization does its best to link missile defense, space weapons, space nuclear power, and economic activity in space into a single monolithic target. It was probably the best funded and most influential organization in the Stop Cassini movement. It opposes mining, colonization, and private property in space.
At the Project Orion club (http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/projectorion) GNAWANPIS is public enemy #1.
Abducting UFOs and conspiring against conspiracy theorists since 1980. |
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Dog_Ed
Skeptic Friend
USA
126 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2001 : 19:20:07 [Permalink]
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rubysue: Interesting facts about Beckmann. Thank you. I had googled out the Galilean Electrodynamics connection and was pretty sure that's what JW is on about, but I haven't found a good critique of the scheme by any professional physicists. Anyone got a hot link for same?
I did find a couple of excellent refutations of Tom Van Flandern's supraluminal gravity hypothesis, though. What happened to poor Tom's brain? Lately he's off with Hoagland finding hieroglyphics in pixels from Mars. Sad.
I haven't heard from JW yet, but I did send him a warm-up email. If we get anything hashed out I may post a version of the interchange on a temporary web page, I dunno.
"Even Einstein put his foot in it sometimes" |
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2001 : 20:09:11 [Permalink]
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quote:
I haven't heard from JW yet, but I did send him a warm-up email. If we get anything hashed out I may post a version of the interchange on a temporary web page, I dunno.
Please remember to provide the link here.
He's YOUR god, they're YOUR rules, YOU burn in hell! |
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Rift
Skeptic Friend
USA
333 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2001 : 00:15:30 [Permalink]
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Which ever one of you poor souls is in email contact with JW, please ask him about my comment that the word 'nazi' doesn't exist in that Salon article. I missed his response (if any) to that. And would like to hear why he thought it was used.
(I already know the answer, "I never claimed it was" Well, he did, but unfortunatly that thread is deleted now)
His spasm at chip's posting that link was remarkable. I went to thinking he wasn't so bad a guy, to wishing his computer would break down or something...
"Goddammit! The world is just filling up with more and more idiots! And the computer is giving them access to the world! They're
spreading their stupidity! At least they were contained before--now they're on the loose everywhere!"? |
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2001 : 08:31:47 [Permalink]
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Just popped over to BA this morning, and my stars! is JW getting paranoid or what? I was going to respond to his criticism about censorship, then noticed he's sending private e-mail to everyone who responds to his posts. Brrr. Close call.
I always considered JW to be opinionated, and maybe a little "off", if you know what I mean. Eccentric but harmless. I never until now had relegated him to the "crank" category. His current "everyone is out to get me" paranoia has changed my mind.
Lisa
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Rift
Skeptic Friend
USA
333 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2001 : 15:37:29 [Permalink]
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Censorship my eye.
We've been told by the BA to watch the insults and JW and I clearly went over the line (I'm very VERY embarrased I acted that way, although I still believe I was nowhere near JW's behavior)
I've sworn myself never to respond to JW again, and I ask you guys to monitor me. :) lol
"Goddammit! The world is just filling up with more and more idiots! And the computer is giving them access to the world! They're
spreading their stupidity! At least they were contained before--now they're on the loose everywhere!"? |
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Trish
SFN Addict
USA
2102 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2001 : 20:27:01 [Permalink]
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quote:
I've sworn myself never to respond to JW again, and I ask you guys to monitor me. :) lol
Instead of replying to JW over at BA, bring the response over here. You get the satisfaction of responding without the resultant flame war. (Isn't that what this thread is for anyway?)
He's YOUR god, they're YOUR rules, YOU burn in hell! |
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Zandermann
Skeptic Friend
USA
431 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2001 : 20:31:37 [Permalink]
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quote:
I've sworn myself never to respond to JW again, and I ask you guys to monitor me. :)
Rift, just walk away. You're more capable than he when it comes to letting some crank get the last word.
I've gotten to the point that I won't even open a post from Pipesqueak, Spoq, JW or Comp_Org...that way I'm not tempted to respond. |
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Rift
Skeptic Friend
USA
333 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2001 : 21:45:57 [Permalink]
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quote:
I've gotten to the point that I won't even open a post from Pipesqueak, Spoq, JW or Comp_Org...that way I'm not tempted to respond.
I'm that way, unless it's a response to a thread i'm already reading. I usually won't open up a thread started by JW or comp_org. I guess I'll just have to not open up ANY posts from any of those idiots.
Oh by the way, Sethrupiper posted his "theory" on the Straight Dope board today...
And I made the mistake of calling him the biggest loon I've ever seen on the internet. Somebody went and posted links to, yes, bigger loons... Repeal the 19th Amendment??? (the one giving votes to women, lol).
"Goddammit! The world is just filling up with more and more idiots! And the computer is giving them access to the world! They're
spreading their stupidity! At least they were contained before--now they're on the loose everywhere!"? |
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Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2001 : 22:44:56 [Permalink]
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Rift, I've just gotten started on the SD board, and am still trying to slog through all of it. Got a link? Which folder?
Lisa
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