Okay, this is a thing of beauty. So, there’s this long ongoing thread on a forum I hang out on, on the topic of whether or not a wind-powered vehicle can move directly downwind faster than the wind. Answer: Yes, surprising though it may seem.
Anyway, one of the participants in the thread spent a great deal of time making claims and predictions and insulting people, and eventually disappeared. And a while later, a new guy shows up who makes the same arguments, uses the same insults, and claims he’s not the first guy. No one is fooled.
Anyway, I pointed out that, now that I technically have access to IP address logs, I could look him up and see whether it’s the same guy. (Answer: What, you think I’m gonna reveal secret stuff? Not likely.)
His response: Almost immediately, the first account comes back and announces that he’s really a different guy. (I’d open a betting pool on whether the new post just happened to come from a proxy server somewhere far away, but really, where would I find someone dumb enough to take the bet?)
If you accused him of taking cookies, he’d say he didn’t, then spontaneously volunteer that, by the way, unrelated to any recent discussions, he should mention that a guy in a mask broke into his room and hid a cookie jar there, only he didn’t think to mention it until now.
Comments [archived]
From: john brand
Date: 2011-01-22 13:01:32 -0600
Glad I came back to your blog via the link you recently posted on the thread mentioned here Peter. As Ravenscape noted, you really are obsessed with this. You should look for a less stressful hobby. You are being played.
From: Peter Seebach
Date: 2011-01-23 16:32:54 -0600
I dunno, I don’t feel obsessed. I think it’s funny. I collect internet kooks. They amuse me, then I do other stuff. It doesn’t seem stressful.
I remain really amazed that Mr. Maczik is continuing to pretend that he’s not really running both accounts. Most people can figure out when they’ve been busted and give up. He apparently can’t.
From: john brand
Date: 2011-02-05 17:34:15 -0600
I imagine you are right, though I’m not nearly as certain. I get PM’s from both, and always thought yev seemed a little smarter than Christopher. I also think Alsee is JJ. So what? I’m glad he’s back.
Calling you obsessed was a bit of hyperbole, just to give you a taste of how it looks on the receiving end. I can tell you you’ve really misread my agenda there, even while occasionally making accurate comments about it. It reminds me of how humber often employs a similar technique.
Certainly humber is no run of the mill kook. He is clever enough that after 2 years I and many others still aren’t sure if he’s trolling or sincere. Either way I think he will soon be moving ever more into the realm of philosophy and rhetoric. On some very abstract level he may yet be able to provide a rational sounding justification for his POV.
I think the Carteers have underestimated humber as much as he has them. Getting more sad than funny though lately, and surely spork et al don’t need another cheerleader, now do they?
From: Peter Seebach
Date: 2011-02-07 21:50:32 -0600
I don’t think it’s so much that humber is clever as that it’s just plain hard to tell how damaged his cognition really is. He consistently fails to read simple English sentences or compare two equations to another successfully. He adds and removes terms from equations and can’t tell that the results are different from the originals.
I can’t comprehend how anyone could look at yev and Harold and not think they’re the same poster. He’s a very distinctive writer, and he has no clue at all how to disguise his writing. This is a convincing disguise about at the level of seeing a guy who has a stripey shirt, a giant bag labeled SWAG, and has a plastic policeman’s helmet sized for a little kid on his head, and wants you to believe that he is totally unrelated to the burglar you’re looking for.
Your problem is that you’re still interpreting this all in terms of whether or not spork & co need “a cheerleader”. Screw that. This is a physics question. There is an answer to it. The assertion is either true, or false. It doesn’t matter who says it, it doesn’t matter how they say it, how vehement they are, or what their personalities are like. Either it’s true or it’s false.
It’s true. DDWFTTW is possible, and has been demonstrated. We’re done. All this crap about cheerleaders and personalities is irrelevant, although I suppose it provides you with entertainment.
From: john brand
Date: 2011-02-14 21:03:07 -0600
Sadly things are much less entertaining lately. And can it be said “we’re done” when the proverbial “fat lady” is still singing and much of the audience remains?
DDWFTTW-SS is the claim, and much depends on how you define both “Directly” and “Steady State.” As natural wind never moves in one direction or speed steady state, it may just be turtles all the way down IMHO. The new glasperlenspiel for the ‘teens?