Peterson, Priestcraft, Profits and the Paranormal

[malkie]

Pepperidge Farm remembers when CERN recorded neutrinos travelling faster than light. It caused quite a kerfuffle until the anomaly was explained and the result overturned.

I don't know, though - I sort of like the idea of neutrinos messing about, just once in a while, ...

[Physics Guy]

Neutrinos ain’t got no respect, for sure.

Neutrinos, they are very small.
They have no charge and have no mass
And do not interact at all.
The earth is just a silly ball
To them, through which they simply pass,
Like dustmaids down a drafty hall
Or photons through a sheet of glass.
They snub the most exquisite gas,
Ignore the most substantial wall,
Cold-shoulder steel and sounding brass,
Insult the stallion in his stall,
And, scorning barriers of class,
Infiltrate you and me! Like tall
And painless guillotines, they fall
Down through our heads into the grass.
At night, they enter at Nepal
And pierce the lover and his lass
From underneath the bed - you call
It wonderful; I call it crass.

Can’t resist adding: it is not quite true that neutrinos do not interact at all. They interact very weakly, primarily with electrons. Most neutrinos will indeed fly right through the whole Earth without doing anything, but there are so many of them flying that the tiny fraction among them which do happen to bounce off electrons, in a swimming pool-sized tank of water, will give a clear signal. So neutrino detectors literally are huge tanks of clear liquid, surrounded by detectors to pick up the flashes of light made by electron-neutrino collisions. It’s kind of like having a very inefficient speed cam that only detects 1% of speeders: you probably won’t catch any one particular speeder, but the camera will reliably detect the Friday afternoon rush out of town, when hundreds of people all speed away sharp at 4.

The only big effect that neutrinos seem to have on anything is in fact pretty big: they can blow apart stars. They don’t cause supernovas, in the sense of causing a big star to die, but they make the death violent.

When a huge star finally runs out of nuclear fuel and can’t keep generating the pressure to resist its own gravity, the star collapses. A supernova starts as an implosion, not an explosion. Then neutrinos are produced in an enormous burst, as electrons and protons merge into neutrons plus neutrinos in the super-high-density core of the imploding star. The giant star is a lot more massive than Earth, so a lot of the neutrinos do hit something on their way out from the core, and there are so many of them, moving so fast all at once, that they splash the star in a shock wave.

Without neutrinos, supernovas would be much less violent. And if supernovas were less violent, elements heavier than hydrogen and helium would be less widely dispersed in the universe, making planets like Earth much more rare. So never say neutrinos never did anything for us. They’ve done a lot for us, and they’re entitled to a bit of fun now and then.

[Gabriel]

It's generally acknowledged that the primary advantage of remote viewing is that it dispenses with all the bother and expense of travel and vacationing. With Yankee good common sense, a Quaker lady named Abigail Harris tried to explain this to Mother Smith:

In the early part of the winter in 1828, I made a visit to Martin Harris' and was joined in company by Jos. Smith, sen. and his wife. The Gold Bible business, so called, was the topic of conversation, to which I paid particular attention, that I might learn the truth of the whole matter. -- They told me that the report that Joseph, jun. had found golden plates, was true, and that he was in Harmony, Pa. translating them -- that such plates were in existence, and that Joseph, jun. was to obtain them, was revealed to him by the spirit of one of the Saints that was on this continent, previous to its being discovered by Columbus. Old Mrs. Smith observed that she thought he must be a Quaker, as he was dressed very plain. They said that the plates he then had in possession were but an introduction to the Gold Bible -- that all of them upon which the Bible was written, were so heavy that it would take four stout men to load them into a cart -- that Joseph had also discovered by looking through his stone, the vessel in which the gold was melted from which the plates were made, and also the machine with which they were rolled; he also discovered in the bottom of the vessel three balls of gold, each as large as his fist. The old lady said also, that after the book was translated, the plates were to be publicly exhibited -- admitance 25 cents. She calculated it would bring in annually an enormous sum of money -- that money would then be very plenty, and the book would also sell for a great price, as it was something entirely new -- that they had been commanded to obtain all the money they could borrow for present necessity, and to repay with gold. The remainder was to be kept in store for the benefit of their family and children. This and the like conversation detained me until about 11 o'clock.

Early the next morning, the mystery of the Spirit being like myself (one of the order called Friends) was revealed by the following circumstance: The old lady took me into another room, and after closing the door, she said, "have you four or five dollars in money that you can lend until our business is brought to a close? the spirit has said you shall receive four fold." I told her that when I gave, I did it not expecting to receive again -- as for money I had none to lend. I then asked her what her particular want of money was; to which she replied, "Joseph wants to take the stage and come home from Pennsylvania to see what we are all about." To which I replied, he might look in his stone and save his time and money. The old lady seemed confused, and left the room, and thus ended the visit.

In the second month following, Martin Harris and his wife were at my house. In conversation about Mormonites, she observed, that she wished her husband would quit them, as she believed it was all false and delusion. To which I head Mr. Harris reply: "What if it is a lie; if you will let me alone I will make money out of it!" I was both an eye and an ear witness of what has been stated above, which is now fresh in my memory, and I give it to the world for the good of mankind. I speak the truth and lie not, God bearing me witness.

ABIGAIL HARRIS
Palmyra, Wayne Co. N. Y. 11th mo, 28th, 1833

From Mormonism Unvailed, Painesville Ohio: Telegraph Press, 1834, P. 253-254

https://www.solomonspalding.com/docs/1834howf.htm

It is be wondered whether this Quaker lady ever denied her testimony as to the truthfulness of this affidavit.

[Marcus]

Dan’s core worldview is centered around something incredibly improbable. So I guess it makes sense that he can more easily adopt ridiculous beliefs …

He claims to have an open mind, though. He further claims that he can change his mind when presented with evidence.

I don’t know about you, but for me Dan Peterson is the gold standard of rational thinking; a learned maester who humbly changes his mind when presented with new evidence that challenges his position. Have you not seen him frequently offer ‘mea culpas’ for a mistake, own up to an erroneous statement, or allow himself to be corrected when he was wrong? He’s easily the most flexible thinker from the current crop the intelligentsia has to offer. May the scales fall from your eyes, drumdude.

Also DCP, recently quoting himself from a 2012 desNews column:

...If you're ever confronted with [insert any bizarre theory] or something like it, demand to see supporting references. Or, if you're pressed for time, just go ahead and laugh. It's not to be taken seriously...

Too bad he can't take his own advice.