Here what I emailed in 2008 to the author of an article that was already debunking their 'research'. I know it's easy, now, to mock them (and well deserved in many ways, but at one point, they were influential, for the good of the like of Little Me in any case.
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:15:42 +0000
To: baez@xxx.edu
Subject: Regarding the Bogdanoff
Hi John,
I'm a french engineer, 39, living in england. I've read your very interesting
article on <http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/bogdanov.html> (which was pointed at
by
http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2008/11/the_case_of_m_s_el_naschie.html)
and just wanted to pinch in from another direction.
I've been interested in technology since in my 10s (I started programming
computers at 12, and never stopped since) and I'm afraid to say that my
interest in anything scientific, engineering, astronomical etc is probably due
for a large part to the Bogdanoff's TV programs in the very early 80s. In
fact, I know quite a few friends with similar background who remember these
shows not necessarily 'fondly' but remember as them being the 'key point' in
an afternoon otherwise filled with inflatable and/or fury creatures on TV.
So, in a 'french' way, they are quite similar to for example Sir Patrick
Moore, the revered TV presenter here in the UK. Oh I'm sure they probably have
a large dose of self-interest that Sir Patrick lacks, but in my case it did
fit a very similar purpose. I'm not sure how large an impact they had on the
whole, but in my case it did.
Given that, I do agree that this shenanigan to get doctorates is both stupid
and embarrassingly crude, however, I've worked with enough 'doctors' to know
that many of them haven't contributed anything to anything in their entire
life, and thats if they're able to tie they own shoes. My opinion is that the
brothers deserved Hon Doctorates from a random and suitably posh university to
celebrate their indirect but real contribution to the scientific world (in the
like of little me for example), and deserved it a hell of a lot more than many
'celebrities' that get these for having played football well or similar
frivolous reasons.
In any case, thanks for the very informative piece!
Best Regards,
(I'm a real person, not a Bogdanoff in disguise ! ;-))
>He who fucks goats, either as part of a performance or to troll those he deems has overly delicate sensibilities is simply, a goatfucker.
>He claimed he was just pretending to be racist to trigger the social justice warriors, but even if he is telling the truth, Popehat's Law of Goats still applies.
>Eccentric French twins die of Covid-19 after refusing vaccine
>Anti-Vax?
>Neither of the brothers had been vaccinated against Covid-19, their friend Luc Ferry, a former education minister, said last week.
>Ferry told Le Parisien newspaper that he had urged both of them to get vaccinated "countless times" but they refused on the basis that they were "very sporty, without a gram of fat".
>"Grichka, like Igor, wasn't an anti-vaxxer. He was anti-vax for himself," Ferry said, confirming that both of them had contracted Covid. "I told them that it was grotesque, they were mad!"
>In an interview at the beginning of December, they raised doubts about the new generation mRNA messenger vaccines developed by BioNtech/Pfizer among others, despite their approval by health authorities.
>France is currently facing another major wave of Covid-19 infections caused by the highly infectious Omicron variant, with hospitals warning that intensive care units are overwhelmed with mostly unvaccinated patients.
[...]
>They also denied having plastic surgery to explain their transformed looks, but admitted to having undergone "experimentations" which gave them their extreme high cheek bones, as well as large lips and pronounced chins.
>"We are proud of having faces like extra-terrestrials," they said in 2010.
Hadn't heard of Popehat's law before, but it reminds me of the moral to Kurt Vonnegut's novel Mother Night: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."
