Re: NARCAP, UAP & UFOs

[William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>]

On Thu, 10 May 2001, Richard Bowman wrote:

> Mr. Joseph Firmage is chairman and CEO of OneCosmos Network, which is
> "working to create science-based entertainment and learning that touches
> the heart and soul."  He is chairman of three other organizations,
> too: Intend Change, the International Space Sciences Organization, and the
> California Institute for Physics and Astrophysics.

I think Mr. Firmage is firmly in the unconventional sciences camp.  He's a
young multimillionaire who had a religious experience and now is using his
wealth to fund research into weird science.

One problem with "crackpot" physics is that the researchers often pretend
that their work is perfectly conventional extensions of known physics.
Anything else will draw the attention of zealous debunkers, and if the
funding source is NSF etc, then publicly admitting to studying Relativity
violation or antigravity devices is a good way to cut your own throat.

Firmage is using his own wealth to fund those organizations, so he could
just as well have called it "Crackpot Institute for UFO Physics."  He's
probably trying to avoid trouble, and to smooth the way for getting
papers accepted by journals, but it's a little too dishonest for my
taste.


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William J. Beaty                                  SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb@eskimo.com                                  http://www.amasci.com
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits          science projects, tesla, weird science
Seattle, WA   206-789-0775          freenrg-L taoshum-L vortex-L webhead-L