🚀 go-pugleaf

> Since initially Herbert Dingle was an important Einsteinian the
> journal Nature was misled into publishing a few heretical papers of
> his:
>
> http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v183/n4677/abs/1831761a0.html
> Nature 183, 1761 (20 June 1959) Herbert Dingle: "AS is well known,
> Einstein's special theory of relativity rests on two postulates: (1)
> the postulate of relativity; (2) the postulate of constant light
> velocity, which says "that light is always propagated in empty space
> with a definite velocity c which is independent of the state of motion
> of the emitting body". For the first postulate there is much
> experimental support; for the second, none."
>
> Then the journal restored its image by giving constant and fierce
> worship to Einstein's idiocies, on the one hand, and constant and
> fierce fight to heretics, on the other:
>
> http://philipball.blogspot.com/2008/08/who-is-karl-neder-these-people-tend-to.html
> Philip Ball: "In my novel The Sun and Moon Corrupted, where these
> words appear, I sought to convey the fact that the group of
> individuals who scientists would call cranks, and who submit their
> ideas with tenacious insistence and persistence to journals such as
> Nature, have remarkably similar characteristics and obsessions. They
> tend to express themselves in much the same manner, exemplified in my
> book by the letters of the fictional Hungarian physicist Karl Neder.
> And their egocentricity knows no bounds. I realised that, if I was
> right in this characterization, it would not be long at all before
> some of these people became convinced that Karl Neder is based on
> them. (The fact is that he is indeed loosely based on a real person,
> but there are reasons why I can be very confident that this person
> will never identify the fact.) And so it comes to pass. The first
> person to cry 'It's me!' seems to be one Pentcho Valev. I do not know
> who Valev is, but it seems I once (more than once?) had the task of
> rejecting a paper he submitted to Nature. I remember more than you
> might imagine about the decisions I made while an editor at Nature,
> and by no means always because the memory is pleasant. But I fear that
> Valev rings no bells at all. Nonetheless, says Valev, there are "Too
> many coincidences: Bulgaria + thermodynamics + Einstein + desperately
> trying to publish (in Nature) + Phillip [sic] Ball is Nature's editor
> at that time and mercilessly rejects all my papers. Yes most probably
> I am at least part of this Karl Neder. Bravo Phillip Ball! Some may
> say it is unethical for you to make money by describing the plight of
> your victims but don't believe them: there is nothing unethical in
> Einstein zombie world." (If it is any consolation, Mr Valev, the
> notion that this book has brought me "fortune" provokes hollow
> laughter.)"

Even nowadays Nature editors publish the truth from time to time but
carefully select the authors (in the era of Postscientism heresy is
tightly controlled and, when published, brings career and money to
selected authors):

http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/2005/051201/full/nj7068-705a.html
Nature: "Physics in crisis?"

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v433/n7023/full/433218a.html
Nature: "Einstein restored faith in the unintelligibility of science.
Everyone knew that Einstein had done something important in 1905 (and
again in 1915) but almost nobody could tell you exactly what it was.
When Einstein was interviewed for a Dutch newspaper in 1921, he
attributed his mass appeal to the mystery of his work for the ordinary
person: "Does it make a silly impression on me, here and yonder, about
my theories of which they cannot understand a word? I think it is
funny and also interesting to observe. I am sure that it is the
mystery of non-understanding that appeals to them…it impresses them,
it has the colour and the appeal of the mysterious."

Pentcho Valev
pvalev@yahoo.com