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From: tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: The realm of physics, and the late Immanuel Velikovsky
Message-ID: <1437@ihlpg.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-Nov-85 15:20:10 EST
Article-I.D.: ihlpg.1437
Posted: Tue Nov 12 15:20:10 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Nov-85 08:19:47 EST
References: <457@imsvax.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 86

> [Ted Holden] 
>               It  has been  brought  to my  attention  that a number of the
>           amateur physicists who regularly post to  net.physics have posted
	^^^^^^^^^^^^
>           articles on the late Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky.  This discussion is
>           normally confined to net.origins,  since  it  involves historical
>           and  mythological   interpretation,  things  physicists  are  not
>           normally interested in.   I  would  like  to  invite  any  of the
>           net.physics viewers  who have  any interest in this topic to pick
>           it up on net.origins.  I thought you might also like to read what
>           a  couple  of  PROFESSIONAL  physicists  have  had  to  say about
			^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>           Velikovsky.
--------
Dear Mr. Holden:
	I apologize to the rest of the readers of net.physics (but not to
you) for an ad-hominem attack on you, but I could not restrain myself after
reading your totally uncalled for attack on the rest of the posters to
net.physics.
	What makes you think that the debunkers of Velikovsky in net.physics
are all AMATEUR physicists?   Many have posted from universities and companies
that employ professional physicists.  I, for one, received my Ph.D in physics
from Yale University (experimental high-energy physics), was a research
associate (post-doc) for 3 years at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, and
an Assistant Professor of Physics at Harvard University for four years.
I have known literally HUNDREDS of professional physicists, and not one
of them takes Velikovsky seriously.   I sure as hell don't.
--------
> [About a hundred lines omitted- quoted from someone named Robert Bass]
>                The paper  itself amounts  to about  ten pages  of very fine
>           print and I can't reproduce it here without getting thrown out of
>           usenet for  cause.  Copies  are  probably  still  available  from
>           the BYU physics dept.   If  all  else  fails,  I  could photostat
>           copies  of  this  article  and send them anyone interested, offer
>           limited to those with  advanced degrees  in physics, astrophysics
>           etc. since nobody else would have a prayer of understanding it.
>           Contact me by UNIX mail if interested.
--------
Sorry, I've got better things to do with my time.  I must attend a meeting
of the SCSSESV (Secret Conspiratorial Society of the Scientific Establishment
for the Suppression of Velikovskyism.)
--------
>                I don't  have to  tell any  of you  who Albert Einstein was.
>           But did any of you know that he and Velikovsky  had been  pals at
>           the Prussian Scientific Academy; that, along with Heinrich Loewe,
>           they had edited the Scripta Universitatus,  the major cornerstone
>           of  the  present  Hebrew  University  in  Jerusalem?  Some of his
>           thoughts on Velikovsky may be  read  in  a  letter  TO Velikovsky
>           dated March 17, 1955:
>                Dear Mr. and Mrs. Velikovsky,
>                  At  the  occasion  of  this inauspicious birthday you have
>                presented me once more with the fruits of an almost eruptive
>                productivity.   I look  forward with pleasure to reading the
>                historical book that does not bring into danger  the toes of
>                my own  guild.   How it  stands with  the toes  of the other
>                faculty, I do not know yet.  I think of the touching prayer,
>                "Holy St. Florian, spare my house, put fire to others!"
>                  I  have  already  read  carefully  the first volume of the
>                memoirs to "Worlds in Collision" and have supplied it with a
>                few marginal  notes in  pencil that can easily be erased.  I
>                admire  your  dramatic  talent  and  also  the  art  and the
>                straightforwardness  of   Thackery  who  has  compelled  the
>                roaring astronomical lion [Shapley] to pull in a  little his
>                royal tail,  yet not  showing enough  respect for the truth.
>                Also, I would be gratified  if  you  could  savor  the whole
>                episode for its humorous side.
>                  Unimaginable letter debts and unread manuscripts that were
>                sent in, force me to be brief.  Many thanks  to both  of you
>                and friendly wishes.
>                                         Your,  
>                                              A. Einstein
> 
> 
> 
>                I  am  just  an  ordinary  businessman myself, and know very
>           little of physics.  Therefore, when I read  or hear  about anyone
>           ridiculing  or  "debunking"  Velikovsky's  theories  because they
>           supposedly violate the "laws of physics", I can only assume it is
>           because they  think they know more about physics than Robert Bass
>           and Albert Einstein.  
-------
If you read into Einstein's letter an endorsement of Velikovsky's theories
then you are even more stupid then I thought.  As for Robert Bass, I never
heard of him.
-- 
Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL  ihnp4!ihlpg!tan