Re: In the News: Was Einstein a fake?

On Apr 20, 9:42 am, Rich Townsend <r...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
jspace...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
From the article:
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John Farrell

There's nothing quite like Einstein and his theories of relativity to
bring out the doubters, the cranks and the outright crackpots. Do they
have a point? Was Einstein a fake?

If you're tired of hearing about 'Intelligent design' creationists and
the court wars against Darwin's theory in the U.S., you might be
surprised to learn that another pillar of modern science, Einstein and
his Theory of Relativity, is under attack.

A burgeoning underground of 'dissident' scientists and self-described
experts publish their theories in newsletters and blogs on the Net,
exchanging ideas in a great battle against 'the temple of relativity'.
According to these critics, relativity is not only wrong, it's an
affront to common sense, and its creator, Albert Einstein, was no less
than a cheat.

A quick glance at anti-relativity proponents and their publications
reveals a plethora of alternative theories about how the universe
really works - very few of them in agreement with each other. But
despite their many differences, common themes among these self-
described iconoclasts do emerge: resentment of academic 'elites',
suspicion of the entire peer-review process in mainstream scientific
journals and a deep-seated paranoia about the extent of government
involvement in scientific projects.
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Read it athttp://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1162

I liked this -- a very well-written article. What's most amusing is that there
are already a couple of comments beneath the article, railing against the Temple
of Relativity, and thereby demonstrating just the crack-pottery (shardiness?)
that the article discusses.

Rich

Best quote:
There has just begun a new series of conferences, held by anti-
relativity
cranks, called 'Crisis in Cosmology'. I think the first one was held
in
Spain and they're planning another. It looks exactly like a
legitimate
scientific conference, with the difference that everyone delivering
a
talk there is insane."

Priceless. The sad thing is that there are a lot of people who
literally devote their entire lives to this nonsense.

There was a pretty good edition of "This American Life"
on American Public Radio that showcased one anti-relativity nut.
It was reasonably kind (how rude can NPR be?), while leaving
no doubt the man was insane. He had devoted every minute
of his free time to proving, among other things, that rather
than E=mc^2, it should be E=mc. When presented with
this, one physics professor said incredulously "The units
aren't even right.".

-jc

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