> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/05/31/bobal...
> "Philip Ball has already made a name for himself as a wide-ranging pop
> science writer. His book about patterns in nature, The Self-Made
> Tapestry (1999), merits particular mention as one of the first popular
> works to look at the buzzy topic of self-organisation. Now he has
> turned to fiction - not without some discomfort, judging by his
> acknowledgments - and there's good news: it's come out as another fine
> piece of pop science. Adrift in mid-1980s Eastern Europe, Karl Neder,
> a dissident physicist, is on the run. Pursued, he believes, by the
> forces of "relativism" - the cabalistic adherents of Einstein's
> relativity theories - he writes whirling, green-ink letters to Western
> physics journals claiming to have overthrown the first law of
> thermodynamics and built a perpetual motion machine. Actually, what he
> says is: "PERPETUUM MOBILE IS CONSTRUCTED BY ME!!!!!!!!!"; his
> voluminous correspondence being littered with blood-curdling Igorisms
> of this sort. Little wonder his correspondents can't even bring
> themselves to look at his workings."
>
> Bravo Philip Ball! I know the original story! The only essential ...

> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/05/31/bobal131.xml
> "Philip Ball has already made a name for himself as a wide-ranging pop
> science writer. His book about patterns in nature, The Self-Made
> Tapestry (1999), merits particular mention as one of the first popular
> works to look at the buzzy topic of self-organisation. Now he has
> turned to fiction - not without some discomfort, judging by his
> acknowledgments - and there's good news: it's come out as another fine
> piece of pop science. Adrift in mid-1980s Eastern Europe, Karl Neder,
> a dissident physicist, is on the run. Pursued, he believes, by the
> forces of "relativism" - the cabalistic adherents of Einstein's
> relativity theories - he writes whirling, green-ink letters to Western
> physics journals claiming to have overthrown the first law of
> thermodynamics and built a perpetual motion machine. Actually, what he
> says is: "PERPETUUM MOBILE IS CONSTRUCTED BY ME!!!!!!!!!"; his
> voluminous correspondence being littered with blood-curdling Igorisms
> of this sort. Little wonder his correspondents can't even bring
> themselves to look at his workings."
>
> Bravo Philip Ball! I know the original story! The only essential ...

> http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/hutchison/080616
> Fred Hutchison: "Kuhn discovered that late in the life cycle of an
> aging model, there invariably comes a time when most of the energies
> of the science establishment is spent in defensive puzzle solving. The
> model becomes a tangled mass of defenses against anomalies. Instead of
> a pretty Potemkin village, the model becomes an unsightly ruin. The
> unsightly patches in the holes do not quite work. The added wings and
> appendages are ad hoc jerry-built eyesores, or are done in
> architectural styles that clash with the original style. The model
> becomes aesthetically repulsive and loses its romantic panache. A lot
> of work is sunk into these maladroit repairs and additions. For
> example, some over-paid and over-educated scientist must have gone
> half blind to create the mathematical bridge I studied. An expensive
> waste of time to save face for Einstein? A sop to people like me who
> demand explanations? Well, it was a good sop. It almost worked....A
> successful model can somewhat predict selected natural events because
> it is deliberately rigged to mimic the patterns of nature. Rich Little
> was able to mimic the idiosyncrasies of public figures to get a laugh,
> but that does not mean he understood these personages. We might learn ...

>

> http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2290413,00.html
> "Karl Neder is a Hungarian-born dissident in 1980s Bulgaria,
> desperately trying to publish work on a machine that will produce
> unlimited energy. His letters to scientific journals show all the
> hallmark ravings of a crank - yet there is just a chance that he might
> be on to something.....Ball deftly draws on a long and ignoble
> tradition of pseudo-science. Neder, like most cranks, is convinced
> that Einstein was wrong and that the scientific establishment is
> persecuting him for saying so."

> On Jul 12, 8:08 am, Pentcho Valev yahoo.com> wrote:
>

>> http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2290413,00.html
>> "Karl Neder is a Hungarian-born dissident in 1980s Bulgaria,
>> desperately trying to publish work on a machine that will produce
>> unlimited energy. His letters to scientific journals show all the
>> hallmark ravings of a crank - yet there is just a chance that he might
>> be on to something.....Ball deftly draws on a long and ignoble
>> tradition of pseudo-science. Neder, like most cranks, is convinced
>> that Einstein was wrong and that the scientific establishment is
>> persecuting him for saying so."

>
> Too many coincidences: Bulgaria + thermodynamics + Einstein +
> desperately trying to publish (in Nature) + Phillip Ball is Nature's
> editor at that time and mercilessly rejects all my papers. Yes most
> probably I am at least part of this Karl Neder. Bravo Phillip Ball!
> Some may say it is unethical for you to make money by describing the
> plight of your victims but don't believe them: there is nothing
> unethical in Einstein zombie world. ...

>> http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2290413,00.html
>> "Karl Neder is a Hungarian-born dissident in 1980s Bulgaria,
>> desperately trying to publish work on a machine that will produce
>> unlimited energy. His letters to scientific journals show all the
>> hallmark ravings of a crank - yet there is just a chance that he might
>> be on to something.....Ball deftly draws on a long and ignoble
>> tradition of pseudo-science. Neder, like most cranks, is convinced
>> that Einstein was wrong and that the scientific establishment is
>> persecuting him for saying so."

>
> Too many coincidences: Bulgaria + thermodynamics + Einstein +
> desperately trying to publish (in Nature) + Philip Ball is Nature's
> editor at that time...