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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Freeman Dyson has, apparently, angered all the right people. |
| 2009-03-27 |
| FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY the eminent physicist Freeman Dyson has quietly resided in PrinceÂton, N.J., on the wooded former farmland that is home to his employer, the Institute for Advanced Study, this countryÂ’s most rarefied community of scholars. Lately, however, since coming “out of the closet as far as global warming is concerned,” as Dyson sometimes puts it, there has been noise all around him. Chat rooms, Web threads, editorsÂ’ letter boxes and DysonÂ’s own e-mail queue resonate with a thermal current of invective in which Dyson has discovered himself variously described as “a pompous twit,” “a blowhard,” “a cesspool of misinformation,” “an old coot riding into the sunset” and, perhaps inevitably, “a mad scientist.” Dyson had proposed that whatever inflammations the climate was experiencing might be a good thing because carbon dioxide helps plants of all kinds grow. Then he added the caveat that if CO2 levels soared too high, they could be soothed by the mass cultivation of specially bred “carbon-eating trees,” whereupon the University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner looked through the thick grove of honorary degrees Dyson has been awarded — there are 21 from universities like Georgetown, Princeton and Oxford — and suggested that “perhaps trees can also be designed so that they can give directions to lost hikers.” DysonÂ’s son, George, a technology historian, says his fatherÂ’s views have cooled friendships, while many others have concluded that time has cost Dyson something else. There is the suspicion that, at age 85, a great scientist of the 20th century is no longer just far out, he is far gone — out of his beautiful mind. Yeah, well, they also got mad at Galileo. A hat tip to Tigerhawk.. and yes that is Freeman Dyson of the Dyson Sphere, Project Orion and a zillon other great efforts |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #4 Yep. If movie stars are in favour of it, it pretty much guarantees it's a bad idea. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2009-03-27 21:44 |
| #3 And God knows there are a sh*tload of mediocre minds involved with gerbil wormening, abu. Not to mention with Lefties, politicians, movie stars.... :-( |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-03-27 21:39 |
| #2 the Zealots are always willing to burn a heretic. Dyson is one of the greats and as Einstein said: “Greatspirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” |
| Posted by: abu do you love 2009-03-27 21:26 |
| #1 Good to hear from him again, he's one of the best "Freethinkers" we have. Y'all better listen. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-03-27 21:23 |