@edgeofeurope Ohhh ok. Sorry I called you grumpypants :)
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I think I have shared this before, but it's so delightfully bizarre that I have to share it again.
Behold, the most ?!?!? email I've ever received:
Who needs aliens from interstellar space? We produce a sufficient supply right here on Earth.
I'll see you on the dark side of the...Sun?
That sounds a good deal like something a good friend who passed away recently would have tried unsuccessfully to publish as a letter to Le Monde or FT.
He had taken, in his despair, to ending all of his notes with "optimistically yours."
It's remotely possible this is merely crazed, but then so is (arguably) "Jubilate Agno". And it is certainly a very good example of whatever it is an example of.
@sundogplanets Was it from JD Vance?
@sundogplanets Sadly there are some people in this world whose disconnection from reality is so profound, there is literally no way to bring them to see the world is not how they conceive it.
@sundogplanets What powers he has! Lol!
@sundogplanets I'd like to point out that they were very respectful and actually addressed you as "Professor."
@sundogplanets Let me guess, the email came from a "Professor John Barron" from Palm Beach, Florida?
@rickf Nope, different person, different country.
Maybe a decade ago, I found a hive of flat earthers posting proofs of their view of the universe. I thought, hmm.. this isn't how this works, so I engaged. Politely. Thinking it might be a good time to explain how we know how these things work.
I became the target of this group, and still take heat for it today. I still think it would be cool to see their mathematical model.
But i get some awesomely insane emails and DMs.
@sergio_101 Thanks for trying to educate!
It never goes well.
Here’s one i got today. I don’t even understand what they’re saying.
@sundogplanets I want to believe that this is tongue-in-cheek satire, but I honestly can’t tell anymore.
@sundogplanets Wonder what brand of aluminum that person makes their hat from 🤔
@sundogplanets thank you for the added slug of weirdness in an otherwise dull day
That's a real eyebrow raiser
@sundogplanets I do not watch "Karen" videos of people losing their wits and being paraded on the internet for laughs and clicks. It saddens me and I see nothing delightful in it. And this is much the same.
So someone wrote a rambling mail. Let it rest.
@edgeofeurope Nice, first time I've been called a Karen directly! Thanks for that, grumpypants.
@sundogplanets no, I'm not calling you a Karen at all. I was comparing whoever wrote that mail to Karens.
One thing that was fun about being in New Zealand and working with the University of Canterbury interstellar objects group for a few weeks was hearing all the stories about weird emails/calls/interactions with Avi Loeb-adjacent conspiracy theory/alien people. Interstellar objects seem to particularly attract that kind of attention (I'm sure Loeb hasn't helped)
But even with all those stories about the weird world of interstellar object conspiracy theorists, this email was the winner
@sundogplanets I run a hacker/maker/arts festival called Electromagnetic Field ( @emf) and our inbox is a constant feed of conspiracy nonsense about radio waves
@sundogplanets Astro cookers😂😂😂
@sundogplanets back in my undergraduate days, the Caltech geology & planetary science division posted such wackos on their bulletin boards. I think we've lost something now that wackos have to put near-zero effort into soliciting for their theories. OTOH they can be exposed to wider ridicule which is good.
@sundogplanets n.b. my only personal encounter (not being an astronomer / PS) was sitting on a plane next to someone reading Einstein's popularization book, thinking they might actually be interesting to talk to, and having them immediately pull out their 300 page manuscript about the Luminferous Ether and ask me to review it. While talking up a simple satellite test of their theory that would only cost $250M.
I'm glad it was only a two hour flight.
@sundogplanets Would be interesting to know how president Trump managed that feat. But I suppose nothing is impossible for true believers.
@sundogplanets That’s certainly… special
@sundogplanets Better idea: launch Tr**p into the sun. Everybody wins!
@sundogplanets I had to make a filter on r/space to automatically mark any mention of it for moderation. So many conspiracists!
I think even now there’s still a big contingent that believe it maneuvered or did something else strange. People were weirdly convinced by arguments of the specialness of the trajectory, but every trajectory is unique. I think even if it hadn’t gotten close to any planet they would have said “look how it was planned to be sure to not hit any planets…”
@wikkit One of the most wacko of the emails I got was just to that effect!
@sundogplanets I suppose it’s one way to note the centenary of Andre Maurois’ The War against the Moon …
@sundogplanets Wait what? Dang I miss all the fun things!!
Yeah, I had high hopes for this.
Especially the "attacks earth" part would have changed many things to the better...
They took one look at us and figured we were doing well enough attacking ourselves, so they didn't need to bother.
You and I continue to share some of the contents of the spam folders.
@sundogplanets wait, what?
@sundogplanets Avi Loeb at it again, I take it?
Although, given... gestures vaguely at everything ...well, let's just say that an alien invasion sounds like it might solve like 99% of our problems.
@Legit_Spaghetti I mean, the worst part of an alien attack would not be the alien attack, but the fact that Avi Loeb was right. (He was not.)
@sundogplanets thought this was an Avi Loeb thing for a second
@SnoopJ @sundogplanets avi could still turn around and attack the earth
@SnoopJ It was. Past tense. Surprise! Not aliens.
Generally speaking, if Avi Loeb makes a statement on it or someone tries to link it to Bob Lazar it is 100% not aliens.
They could land a flying saucer in Central Park and eight foot tall tentacled creatures could float out on hoverboards and if Avi Loeb told me they were aliens I’d have to reconsider…
