🚀 go-pugleaf

On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:55:16 +0100, Jon Green <jonsg@deadspam.com>
wrote:

>Christopher A. Lee wrote:
>> On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:20:45 +0100, Jon Green <jonsg@deadspam.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> blues517@hotmail.com wrote:
>>>> (crap)
>>> Oh please, not again.
>> 
>> I wondered what this certifiable lunatic imagined he achieved by
>> posting this sheer stupidity until I saw the newsgroups:
>> 
>> sci.physics,
>> cam.misc,
>> alt.atheism
>> 
>> What's the cam.* hierarchy?
>> 
>> Cambridge? 
>> 
>> What have these three groups done to upset this psychopath so he wants
>> to disrupt them?
>
>It's Cambridge (UK), yes.  Mainly we get plagued by racist trolling, 
>usually cross-posted from rec.org.mensa, but this stuff seems to be on 
>the upswing.

Thanks. There's also Cambridge, Massachusetts, home of MIT.

Rec.org.mensa got taken over by the trolls a couple of decades ago as
a "home" group for cross posting contentious stupidity to elicit
responses they would then amateur-psychologise as though they were
unprovoked. 

Attempting to refute crackpots or explain things to them, always ends
up in mutual frustration and name calling.

>All of the cross-posted crud seems to be based on the assumptions that 
>(1) there are Important Things That Academics Need To Know, (2) 
>Cambridge consists only of academics (present or past), and (3) it's 
>vitally important that the topics be discussed.

On National Public Radio last Saturday, "This American Life" told the
story of somebody who claimed he could refute Einstein's theory of
relativity and this was so obvious he couldn't understand why
physicists hadn't seen it before. He was upset that physicists weren't
interested.

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=293

"Bob Berenz had a good job as an electrician. But he wanted to do
 something bigger. He came up with an idea for an invention. But as he
 studied physics texts to see if his invention could work, he happened
 upon the biggest idea of his life: a revelation about physics that
 would disprove Einstein, and Newton. That is, if Bob's right. Bob's
 friend, Robert Andrew Powell, reports the story. He's a sports writer
 and the author of We Own This Game, about youth football. (16-1/2 
 minutes)"

>Usually it's either ignored, or there's a bloodbath (beating up a troll 
>is sometimes fun, if you've the spare time).  Either way, it doesn't go 
>well for the perpetrators.
>
>Jon