The Dipole Repeller – don’t trust scientific propaganda

Disclaimer: I must admit that I’m allergic to anything that is untruthful. We can make mistakes, we can have our biases, but they still don’t count as deceitful. Ads can exaggerate, and if it says “ad” that is self-understood. I draw the line at propaganda where it does not say: hyped for promotional purposes. And what if it cheers on causes that I support? I don’t mind as long as it says that this is advertising rather than only facts. So say: Out of love for Jews, Israel and Zionism we join the hype by Israelis who report their supposed scientific breakthroughs.

However, I doubt if a science and health reporter can weed out the propaganda. Being critical at informants’ information may easily dishearten them to return and discourage others to show up with the next scoop. Furthermore, there might be nothing left to report. So I’m full of understanding of my paper’s uncritical reporting about natural science developments, but it still needs to be contradicted and corrected.

One of the basics of natural science is not to confuse findings with theory. Anyone can make up theories, and typically natural science theories turn out to conflict with the findings. A mere idea is never found to be true though; it stays a model, an idea – until it is confirmed by facts a lot, when it can be promoted to a Theory or even a Law. But Theories or Laws are never found in Nature. They stay an analysis – not the facts on the ground, ready to be thrown out by a better Theory.

(Similar distinctions we need in truthful news coverage: a distinction between reporting and analysis. The demonstrators shouted: Bibi go home. They seem mostly driven by negative press reports about the PM. Very similar to findings and diagnoses in Medicine. The doctor had a look at her finger; she assumed it could be broken and suggested an X-ray.)

The opening line of Giving the galaxy a push is therefore completely off. Instead of saying that a professor “discovered that our Milky Way Galaxy is not only being pulled, but also being pushed,” it should have read that he “has theorized that our Milky Way Galaxy is also being pushed, and he set out for findings that would prove or disprove that.”

This is not merely a mistake by the reporter. The professor and his team (whom she quotes at length) confuse the two polar entities, ideas and findings. The very first paragraph of the scientific article (in a greatly respected and peer-reviewed publication, no less) that sparked this news item, The dipole repeller, we find: “We show here that that the dominant influences are a single attractor and a single repeller” (I left out some distracting details). Of course the researchers cannot “find” or “show” an idea or analysis. They could try to show the workability of them, or that findings support their model, but that’s about it.

Don’t blame the Jerusalem Post reporter for not seeing through this scientific nonsense. The excellent Times of Israel reports the same mistake without calling scientists out on it. In its puffed up “Our galaxy’s dash through space seen as tale of attraction and repulsion” we find the identical basic mistake by a cosmologist and professor of physics who was not involved in the study, calling the team’s inference a “discovery.” Inference is in the realm of conclusions, thoughts, the mind; discoveries are physical findings in Nature.

Worst of all is of course that the whole issue is much ado about nothing. There is no gravitational pushing cooperating with a gravitational pulling, as we find in Physics Forums. Rather, it’s something like minus 5 degrees Celsius and plus 5 degrees Celsius: they are not opposite temperatures. They are 278 and 268 degrees Kelvin and that’s all there is to it.

Long live the Jews, Israel and Zionism, but I don’t think we need hype to promote us. The facts are impressive enough as they are.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. * His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1