March Meeting abstract howler...

[meanfreepath]

Looks like there's no oral crackpot session this year, but there is this howler of a poster abstract:

"Origin of Everything and the 21 Dimensions of the Universe"

[EDIT: I've registered; I think I'll just go for the meeting and not the early programs, including the DPOLY short course. It's an extra 24 hours to work on my talk in Cambridge, should it come to that, and if last year is any indication I'll probably be too stressed & sleep-deprived by that point to get much out of an intensive 2-day long tutorial. Moreover, while I'm no expert, I think I've learned enough about the fundamentals of soft matter physics to be able to read myself into the field of polymer nanocomposites if I had to.

And for anyone who's going, Wednesday is the deadline for early registration.]

Comments

[jedibl.livejournal.com]

Oh, fun. Will you be stopping by to stare at the kook, or avoiding him like the plague?

[meanfreepath.livejournal.com]

I'm not entirely sure. I haven't looked in detail at whatever else is going on that afternoon. But I might well stop by if I get really bored/burned out with real physics and need a little comic relief.

There is the ethical question of whether one should go to crackpot sessions specifically for entertainment purposes -- making sport out of someone's ignorance or delusion does not entirely seem right to me. On the other hand, one could argue that by voluntarily giving a talk or poster, a speaker invites public viewing and commentary, positive or otherwise.