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News Briefs 25-02-2016

By red pill junkieon

Chris Carter cranked it to 11 on the Conspiranoid meter for that series finale. Only thing left out was a re-animated Walt Disney!

Big thanks to Kat and Grailseeker

Quote of the Day:

“I don’t believe in anything, but I have many suspicions”

˜Robert Anton Wilson

red pill junkie
Agnostic gnostic, walking conundrum & metaphysical oxymoron (with emphasis in the 'moron' part), the mysterious RPJ leaves a double life: By day he serves as Grand Master of the International Sacred Order of Lucha Libre, but at night he pursues his life-long study of everything considered mysterious and/or 'paranormal' --a term he personally detests... When he's not exploring the web looking for his daily fix of Forteana, he can be found blogging, doodling, fooling around and offering his services as news administrator and writer at The Daily Grail. He also regularly participates in other websites and podcasts like Radio Misterioso and Where Did the Road Go? He impatiently awaits for the return of the mothership in Mexico City. absurdbydesign.com
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6 Comments

  1. That Motherboard article about the Electric Universe Theory
    Last month I responded to Sarah Scoles Twitter request for people who knew or were interested about the Electric Universe theory. She sent me a few questions which I responded via e-mail, thanked me for my contribution and told me she would send me a link to the article once it was posted; which se didn’t.

    Last night Kat sent me a bunch of article links for usage on the news briefs, one which was Sarah’s article, which turned out to be way too skeptic-sided and negative for my taste. In it, she writes:

    “I believe history has showed us again and again that many novel ideas which were initially met with skepticism or angry rejection eventually gain more adherents and momentum until they end up as part of the orthodox corpus of scientific knowledge,” said Miguel, who encountered EU in his work as a contributor to the website The Daily Grail, which explores “the fringes of science and history.”

    And, to some extent, he’s right. The idea that Earth goes around the Sun, and not the other way around, was once considered heretical. Before revolutionary ideas become revolutionary, they simply sound fringe.

    But the problem is that most fringe ideas don’t turn out to be revolutionary. They just turn out to be wrong. And equating pseudoscience, or even just bad science, with solid science isn’t just unorthodox. It can be dangerous.

    Climate change denial slows the cleanup of the planet. Anti-vaccination movements give kids measles. GMO hysteria makes it harder for starving kids to get nutrient-rich rice. The Electric Universe theory doesn’t seem to be hurting anyone at the moment, but wouldn’t it be better for the Thunderbolts to expend their energy understanding good science? Or at least be as suspicious of EU as they are of “the astronomy establishment.”

    Whoa. So from having an interest in something like the EU, you’re a defacto Antivaxxer and Climate Change denialist? How did that happen??

    Thing is, on my answers I made sure to indicate to Sarah that I do not ‘believe’ in the EU theory, the same way I don’t ‘believe’ in UFOs, PSI abilities, paranormal phenomena or all the other things we discuss at the Grail. Why? Simply because I don’t *like* to use the word belief when discussing such things. I’m trying as best I can to subscribe to RAW’s Maybe logic.

    So, since I can’t comment on the Motherboard’s article because they don’t happen to have a comment section –guys, do you even Internet??– here it is the original transcript of the questions Sarah asked me, and the answers I provided:

    1. When did you first encounter Electric Universe Theory?
    A: I’m a regular contributor on the news website The Daily Grail (http://www.dailygrail.com/) , which –as our motto says– deals with “exploring the fringes of science and history,” adding a very apropos “Caveat Lector” as a warning to our readers.

    I joined TDG in 2007, so I guess I first encountered the EU theory not long after that. One of our former news administrators, Kat, used to link posts from the thunderbolts.info website quite regularly. This is how I got introduced to this idea.

    Mind you, I’ve never read the book Thunderbolts of the Gods, nor have I watched the 2005 documentary of the same name

    2. What did you initially find interesting about it that made you want to check it out?
    A: As a ‘Grailer’ (member of The Daily Grail) I’m personally interested in all sorts of alternative theories and topics that tend to be shunned by ‘mainstream Science’, like for example the UFO phenomenon and the non-locality of consciousness. I realize that in some respects that would equate me in the eyes of many people as being no different from Creationists, Flat-Earth supporters or even Holocaust deniers –all of which I’m adamantly against, may I add– but I believe History has showed us again and again that many novel ideas which were initially met with skepticism or angry rejection, eventually gain more adherents and ‘momentum’ until they end up as part of the orthodox corpus of scientific knowledge.

    Currently I feel there aspects of our theories re. the origin of the Universe which seem to be conflictive; take for example the concepts of dark matter and dark energy, which were proposed to solve the problem of the lack of visible matter in the observable Universe, as well as its accelerated rate of inflation. These solutions look rather like ‘patches’ meant to keep together the prevalent cosmological theories in concordance with scientific observation.

    It seems that people are attracted to the EU theory because it offers a more ‘elegant’ solution to what astronomers are detecting with their instruments.

    3. Are you active in any of the online communities (like the Thunderbolts)? If so, have you formed friendships or benefited from forum discussions (or anything else kind of social)?
    A: No, I’m not an active member in that particular community.

    4. As you learned more about the Electric Universe, what aspects of it appealed to you most?
    A: Like I stated earlier, I’m not particularly knowledgeable in the EU theory, and I personally don’t think they will end up being right in EVERYTHING they posit. However, there are a few things which I find rather interesting, like the idea that the current orography on the surface of Mars may be the result of formidable electric ‘arcs’ instead of less dramatic geological processes. I’m also interested in how they interpret ancient legends as the result of previous civilizations observing astronomical displays caused by these ginormous electric discharges.

    5. Why do you prefer EU to traditional modern physics?
    A: Again, I’m not rejecting traditional modern physics in favor of the EU. One thing I’ve learned in my years on The Daily Grail is to avoid the polar opposites of an argument, and embrace the ‘excluded middle’ 😉

    I find some elements of the EU interesting, believe they have a point in affirming astronomers and cosmologists should consider the effects of electric forces when creating their computer models, instead of just nuclear reactions and gravity, and I want to see what happens with the EU theory as the years go by. Will it forever remain labeled as a ‘pseudoscience’ or will it gain more support from the mainstream? We shall see 🙂

    ______________________________

    I feel Sarah was too focused on painting the ‘EU believers’ with too-broad of a brush, to bother with my nuanced adherence to the ‘excluded middle’. Those general characterizations is why younger generations are shunning away from mainstream media, but sadly even the more popular websites seem not to be immune to such vices. Oh well…

    1. Electric (Slide) Universe
      Sounds like the “interviews” were just a way for the author to easily construct the article (by cherry-picking the responses), and without the need to put any deep thought of their own into it. Pretty clever journalistic technique!

      I’ve explored the Electric Universe site fairly thoroughly. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering, but have to admit that plasma physics is not something that was part of my university’s curriculum. I’m very much in favor of the pursuit of new approaches. This one may go the way of the plasma TV, but hey, something good can often result even from a spectacular failure.

      I place Velikovsky in the “spectacular failure” category. Yet, he didn’t entirely miss the mark. His analysis of the Amarna Tablet correspondence has held up. However, the idea of a young solar system has not. Unfortunately, the EU people have been adversely effected by Velikovsky’s interpretation of Mythology. This is my biggest objection.

      The problem with spectacular failures is that they tend to create stigmas and barriers that future researchers have to somehow overcome.

  2. The X-Files
    Meh.

    The show always was and still is a satire of our looniest Internet fed irrational fears and beliefs. But that premise has worn thin over time. The split seams and threadbare spots are showing.

    If it doesn’t come back again, my heart won’t be broken.

    2. What can I say?
      I was a fan of the old series, and I’m a fan of the new one. I guess to me it’s more about the characters than the topics they covered; I saw a lot about middle-aged Mulder in me in the miniseries, and Episode 3 may very well be my favorite X-File episode EVER 🙂

  3. Fukushima
    I have a completely off topic question: Did the author of this article time travel or am I missing something? Because it says March 1, 2016 at the top near his name. Dammit Professor!

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