Letter to Shermer
Michael,
While attempting to extricate myself from one of those pesky---albeit often interesting---rabbit warrens of Amazon/Borders'cyberspace, I ran across a book review, which at first glance sounded pathetically humorous. I was just about to click the back button when the name of my hometown, Hemet, jumped off the page at me, so I continued. Needless to say, I was hooked when I saw the name of the author was Bob Beckett, who now apparently sees himself as some sort of 4-star general in Jehovah's army. (not to be confused with Jehovah's Witness' army of yawning loiterers)
The book, Commitment to Conquer, begins with a little snippet of our shared past---a story of The Navel of the Earth. If you get the chance, check out the veiwable pages at Borders.com. Anyway, the gist of Bob's imaginative retelling runs thusly:
There exists in the San Jacinto valley a now-seasonal creek (interesting note: the source of the orginal year-round spring-fed creek was suddenly cut by MWD back in the 20's or 30's when they dug their subterranean aquaduct from Banning to San Jacinto, accidentally boring right through the main, 40,000 gpm natural hydroconduit which fed the stream. But that story is better told by Huell Howser) which runs through a picturesque little ranch behind the Soboba Indian reservation. And just upstream a quarter-mile or so, the monsoons have carved out a nice little vortex of about 20' in diameter and about 15' deep. Bob tells of how the transcendentalists who used to frequent the place would meditate at this vortex and chant…until it magically reversed its rotation.
He goes on to explain the spooky sensation when he realized the seemingly physical impossibility of such an event, and, in short, how it was clearly the work of Satan....yadda, yadda, yadda.
Which is all fine and dandy, except for the fact that I was there, too. I was the first "student" at his so-called "minimum security juvenile facility." In reality, The Melodyland Ranch Academy, had been purchased by that notorious church of the same name, located adjacent to Disneyland, and sharing many of the same fantastyistic attributes. Now, being but a lowly ironworker, my training in physics is pretty much limited to how much an energy a cranium can absorb when dropped from 20’ feet. Yet, even with my 9th grade education, it seems almost humorously obvious that Bob’s explanation of the physics involved is, at best, spotty.
Mr. Beckett’s statement: that a vortex north of the equator tends toward clockwise rotation, while true, is misleading. Or so it would seem, to me, having personal knowledge of the site he’s writing about. As anyone with half a brain can envision, this “Navel of the Earth,” situated in a boulder-strewn xeriscape, is not your typical toilet bowl. I assume he’s correct, as I have heard over the years and many times, that a vortex will indeed tend toward clockwise rotation—all things being equal—as in your toilet bowl. However, in the raging torrent of a monsoon-swelled stream in which the water may not—and in this case absolutely does not—enter in a perfectly smooth, perfectly symmetrical manner, the seemingly-infinitesimally weak force of planetary rotation would appear to be not even a measurable factor when compared to vastly more pertinent factors as configuration, slope, surface friction, and especially that pair of trumps, the entry and exit points. Squirt a hose in a bucket; unless your Higher Power or the Forces of Darkness decide to circumvent the laws of physics, one should undoubtedly notice that the water’s direction of rotation is determined 100% by the direction of flow from the source (your hose/the stream) and also the proximity and location of your bucket (“The Navel”) in relation to the flow of that source.
Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Of course, the book goes on to bigger and vastly more ominous deeds and misdeeds done in the name of Christ, or alternatively, Satan (or, in this case, one of Satan’s own generals, Tahquitz, the ancient Indian spirit evidently residing somewhere up near the Taquitz fire lookout just south of Mt. San Jacinto.) His fabrications grow, become more inextricably dependent on some “secret map” which he purportedly kept silent about for some fifteen-or-so years (the only real impossibility of the book), until finally he and a few other of the “generals” are virtually in control of the history of the human race, probably even planetary rotation!
Normally I wouldn’t give a rat’s @$$ about such blather, but it’s not every day when one discovers he’s actually a part of cosmic history-in-the-making. I thought you might like to know.
Sincerely, Fellow skeptic
While attempting to extricate myself from one of those pesky---albeit often interesting---rabbit warrens of Amazon/Borders'cyberspace, I ran across a book review, which at first glance sounded pathetically humorous. I was just about to click the back button when the name of my hometown, Hemet, jumped off the page at me, so I continued. Needless to say, I was hooked when I saw the name of the author was Bob Beckett, who now apparently sees himself as some sort of 4-star general in Jehovah's army. (not to be confused with Jehovah's Witness' army of yawning loiterers)
The book, Commitment to Conquer, begins with a little snippet of our shared past---a story of The Navel of the Earth. If you get the chance, check out the veiwable pages at Borders.com. Anyway, the gist of Bob's imaginative retelling runs thusly:
There exists in the San Jacinto valley a now-seasonal creek (interesting note: the source of the orginal year-round spring-fed creek was suddenly cut by MWD back in the 20's or 30's when they dug their subterranean aquaduct from Banning to San Jacinto, accidentally boring right through the main, 40,000 gpm natural hydroconduit which fed the stream. But that story is better told by Huell Howser) which runs through a picturesque little ranch behind the Soboba Indian reservation. And just upstream a quarter-mile or so, the monsoons have carved out a nice little vortex of about 20' in diameter and about 15' deep. Bob tells of how the transcendentalists who used to frequent the place would meditate at this vortex and chant…until it magically reversed its rotation.
He goes on to explain the spooky sensation when he realized the seemingly physical impossibility of such an event, and, in short, how it was clearly the work of Satan....yadda, yadda, yadda.
Which is all fine and dandy, except for the fact that I was there, too. I was the first "student" at his so-called "minimum security juvenile facility." In reality, The Melodyland Ranch Academy, had been purchased by that notorious church of the same name, located adjacent to Disneyland, and sharing many of the same fantastyistic attributes. Now, being but a lowly ironworker, my training in physics is pretty much limited to how much an energy a cranium can absorb when dropped from 20’ feet. Yet, even with my 9th grade education, it seems almost humorously obvious that Bob’s explanation of the physics involved is, at best, spotty.
Mr. Beckett’s statement: that a vortex north of the equator tends toward clockwise rotation, while true, is misleading. Or so it would seem, to me, having personal knowledge of the site he’s writing about. As anyone with half a brain can envision, this “Navel of the Earth,” situated in a boulder-strewn xeriscape, is not your typical toilet bowl. I assume he’s correct, as I have heard over the years and many times, that a vortex will indeed tend toward clockwise rotation—all things being equal—as in your toilet bowl. However, in the raging torrent of a monsoon-swelled stream in which the water may not—and in this case absolutely does not—enter in a perfectly smooth, perfectly symmetrical manner, the seemingly-infinitesimally weak force of planetary rotation would appear to be not even a measurable factor when compared to vastly more pertinent factors as configuration, slope, surface friction, and especially that pair of trumps, the entry and exit points. Squirt a hose in a bucket; unless your Higher Power or the Forces of Darkness decide to circumvent the laws of physics, one should undoubtedly notice that the water’s direction of rotation is determined 100% by the direction of flow from the source (your hose/the stream) and also the proximity and location of your bucket (“The Navel”) in relation to the flow of that source.
Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Of course, the book goes on to bigger and vastly more ominous deeds and misdeeds done in the name of Christ, or alternatively, Satan (or, in this case, one of Satan’s own generals, Tahquitz, the ancient Indian spirit evidently residing somewhere up near the Taquitz fire lookout just south of Mt. San Jacinto.) His fabrications grow, become more inextricably dependent on some “secret map” which he purportedly kept silent about for some fifteen-or-so years (the only real impossibility of the book), until finally he and a few other of the “generals” are virtually in control of the history of the human race, probably even planetary rotation!
Normally I wouldn’t give a rat’s @$$ about such blather, but it’s not every day when one discovers he’s actually a part of cosmic history-in-the-making. I thought you might like to know.
Sincerely, Fellow skeptic
posted by Jefferson | 10:54 PM
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