…you can continue with your own joke here.
I’ll provide an illustration.
I realize this might be a bit cryptic for a good portion of my audience, and for that, I beg forgiveness.
I’ve been reluctant to blog about this, because I’m always wary of providing cheap publicity to quacks such as Walter L. Wagner. A number of my online penpals, however, have done tons of research to expose him as nothing but a lunatic. I suppose every link counts in cementing lead positions for appropriate posts in Google rankings, so I figured spreading the word in this case considerably outweighs other considerations.
In case the name rings a bell – and especially if it does not – here is the briefest of summaries.
Mr Wagner is a self-professed “scientist” who filed a suit in a US court to stop CERN from launching the LHC on the grounds that the experiments it is supposed to run will create miniature black holes that will eventually devour Earth. The lawsuit has been duly dismissed, but the frenzy whipped up by Wagner and his ilk has produced a number of deplorable by-products such as death threats to CERN scientists.
One of the members of the UCF, an online community to which I belong, Janiece, has nominated Wagner for her regular “‘Tard of the Week” award. Then another member of our club, John, a physical chemist by trade, started exploring Wagner’s so-called credentials. Mr Wagner himself – plus a couple of his no less delusional friends – decided to defend his claims to scientific prowess on John’s blog, using his supposed mastery of chess and his erstwhile passage with flying colors of a basic primary education teaching qualifications exam, among other things. Their evasive and obfuscating rambles raised the ire of a number of UCFers, so not only John wrote another piece dissecting Wagner’s delusions, but Jim wrote a powerful essay on Wagner’s insanity, MWT summarized absurdity of Wagner’s claims and Eric, with his trained legal eye, exposed in detail that Wagner’s key claims do not pass muster.
If you don’t want to wade through all of that material, let me give you another brief summary: Mr Wagner is not qualified by any stretch of imagination to call himself a “Dr”, a physicist, or even a generic “scientist”. He is a lunatic who believes that he understands nuclear physics better than practically anyone in the world, and he uses a lot of misinformation to present himself as an accepted authority in the field, so that his delusions can be taken seriously by the public.
If you don’t trust my word – or want to learn for yourself – then, by all means, please, click on the links in this post.
My friends in the UCF do a really good job in calling Wagner’s BS. I feel awesome in being associated with them.
I received a package today from my UCF friend Janiece. Since I am pretty sure that everyone else in the group had received theirs ahead of me (I am one of only two “offshore” members of the club, and the other person is “near offshore”), I can safely divulge what her Super Secret UCF project was: A T-shirt with the UCF logo on the front and personalized member blog address on the back. I’m wearing it as I type this.
Janiece, I’m speechless and a bit embarrassed that I cannot think of a way to get back at you.
You rock!
Many thanks!
[update] It turns out that a US-originated delivery to Canada – and to a couple of Stateside addresses, as well! – takes longer than a delivery to the UK. Cheers for Royal Mail!
Natasha’s 17-year-old niece Katya, who has been fighting Hodgkin’s lymphoma for over half a year, has passed away last night in Rostov. We knew that she has not been doing well lately, and one of the main reasons for Natasha’s trip was that she knew she might not get another chance to see her, but still, her death came as a shock. The year ended on the saddest note possible.
We continued to disprove my earlier statement regarding diminished activity by making visits to friends over the weekend.
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Tuesday morning it was some water leak in front of my driveway. Today it was the full-blown watermain burst at the busy intersection between our rented house and the train station.
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Weather again. Some portions of England have experienced the worst flooding in 60 years over the last couple of days.
Watching the news last night, I’ve noticed a clear convergence of events. Deluge in England… Floods in Texas… Inundation in Bangladesh and China… Is it too late now to start building an ark?
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Resuming our London-based activities, we went to the Taste of London festival on Saturday.
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Our guests have returned home, and we have a brief lull until the next visitors arrive.
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Chronicles, Family & Friends, From Russia, On Current Events
Contrary to my regular protestations of an utterly routine boredom, things happen to us all the time. As it happens with the rest of humankind, only the biggest things tend to leave an imprint on our memory and, later on, resurface at a point of writing a blog entry.
The last few days gave rise to a few big occurrences, so my task of keeping an up-to-date, yet entertaining, chronicle is so much simpler.
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Chronicles, Customerography, Family & Friends, London & Environs
It took me a while to emerge from under the pile of emails after a protracted absence from work. But I did emerge from that battle victorious, if in desperate need of another vacation. Nice trips, I always found, have an annoying quality of appearing insufficiently long, when recalled after just a couple of days of routine, work, school, etc…
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Chronicles, Family & Friends, London & Environs, On Current Events
Sincere apologies to my faithful readers for such a long gap in my posts.
I was not in much of a mood for writing. My family in New York has suffered through an inconceivable loss, and a beautiful little girl has never got a chance to open her eyes and experience the world and the love of her family. I am truly not a sentimental person, and it is hard for me to find words to express how I feel. So I decided to give it time…
Guys, our hearts go out to you, we grieve with you and curse at the senselessness of it with you. But we also know that joy and happiness will one day be with you again! We love you all!
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It’s nothing short of amazing that I don’t impersonate Natasha-without-her-voice today. Try singing karaoke for a hundred songs in one sitting, and you’ll understand…
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Chronicles, Customerography, Family & Friends, That's England
If you have not read the first part of our report, you can do it here. Otherwise, read on.
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This weekend, I watched more NFL than on any weekend on the US. Sky Sports channels broadcast CBS/NBC/ESPN games live, with a recording repeat next day. Because the weekend was 4 days long and we have not had much to do due to everything being closed, I watched 4 games in total…
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Over the last weekend, I triumphantly assembled the new wardrobe that Natasha had bought in IKEA… Well, ok, ok, it was a really pathetic performance, comprised of 36 steps according to instruction manual, that took over 2 hours to complete. But I did raise my arms in triumph when it was finished…
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The wife demands a rebuttal – the shirt did not turn the color of salmon, but rather a very pleasant pastel pink. I should still be a big hit in a gay neighborhood…
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