Watch Out For The Crazies

[theheretic]

Today XKCD had a lovely little cartoon about a forum for perpetual motion machines, still going after 8 years. They're a wonderfully insane subject that crazy people inevitably drift into. Not being interested in them is often a sign of sanity, if you ever wondered about your own mental health. Those places also attract con men and I think that's

Comments

[baron_waste]

The problem with cold fusion was political. 'Conspiracy' not so much, just an ugly side of human nature called authoritarianism. It's fairly common in science: I woudn't waste my time saying something if it were wrong, I'm paid to know these things, and sufficient education in the subject leads inevitably to my expert opinon, so if your opinion differs it merely means you're ignorant of your subject.

You may remember a gent by the name of Immanuel Velikovsky. He had quite a drip-percolator going for a while, about how Mars was originally ejected from Jupiter and went careening past the Earth, causing Earth's rotation to stop - conveniently for Joshua, in the Bible, you see - but Earth somehow started up again while Mars settled into its current orbit, &c., &c.

It was all just gas, just blithering idiocy, but Isaac Asimov was a bit upset and famously said so because Velikovsky's ideas were not examined and disproven scientifically, he was laughed off because he couldn't possibly be right because if he was, the academicians would

[theheretic]

Perhaps you do not remember the news coverage of the event in 1989 or whenever it was? A number of universities provided similar results of proof. It WAS tested. On review they determined that the results were anomalous and caused by contaminated Palladium since all those universities bought their electrodes from the same supplier, whose source was contaminated. Oops! I was all for it working and not expecting poppycock. I was watching the universities step up and say: "Yes, it works for us too!". Later we got disappointment. Really, they threw the book and Stanley Pons and Alan Fleischman. It was mean. They made mistakes, got excited, thought they'd solved the cause of 80 years of war. Pity. I object to people claiming to be "scientists" who refuse to provide proof, citing "conspiracy!!" yet insist they have working cold fusion on their desk when any applied scientist knows two important facts: 1) if it worked it would kill them from radiation and 2) if it worked they'd be famous. Ergo, they're lying or crazy. Thus my point.

[peristaltor]

You had me until the somewhat predictable, "Clinton, too." After that, nothing but the silly soshulizm! non-sequitors, as coincidentally a reliable indicator of questionable as, well, cold fusion.

[theheretic]

Its cuz I'm unemployed and have been for months. And because Der Presidendfurher insists the economy is "Fine, Just Fine!" on tv. Then the stock market crashes. It grates. I see this New Sozialistizcism as demotivating solutions for Peak Oil, and preventing anybody from caring as long as it isn't them that's suffering. We DO see that every day, right?

Considering the lack of posts on this forum, perhaps you'd like to say something?

[peristaltor]

I'll grant you that unemployed sucks. The Wife™ has been for about 2 years now. I'll even grant that the whole "F,JF!" is grating, no matter which talking head flaps the gummy "news." Dem, GOP, pundit, they all do. They do or they don't get on the telly.

But I'm not seeing the NS BS you claim. I'm seeing a lot of denial, sure, but socialism? I tell you, I would love to get a chance for an actual, viable socialist candidate. I'm not saying I'd vote for him or her, but the chance would show I'm living in something other than a corporatist captured former democracy beholdened to continuing the business as usual despite BAU's inherent unsustainability.

This forum is dieing the death of the relevant. When a story even kinda sorta breaks into the mainstream, as PO has, there's no use discussing it online, since it can be discussed elsewhere. Me? I'm still on the narrative, but moving now into the tangent on how the energy supply issues affect the economy. That seems more relevant and far less discussed right now.

[theheretic]

Maybe I should explain more clearly: A Vote for Socialism actually GETS Oligarchy because nobody gets Socialism, just a name. An excuse for higher taxes. And we can't pay for it anyway, even if we tried and pretended we had it. Unfortunately, pretending we have socialism just because the country voted for it seems to be enough to demotivate, and the economic consequences are a continued crap economy and few jobs. After all, Oligarchy is about concentrating wealth, not getting taxed for Useless Eaters. It doesn't help that higher taxes and BS from those in charge, which I agree infects all sides, leads to higher unemployment and shipping yet more jobs overseas in the name of PROFIT. America gets poorer with each instance of this. Shareholders, on the other hand, do well. Until the company bankrupts because they have no customers.