NEW AETHER IN EINSTEIN ZOMBIE WORLD

In order to save their money-spinner, Einstein criminal cult would do
anything:

http://www.physorg.com/news111249257.html
"Physicists once thought light waves propagated in a special medium,
the "luminiferous aether." This implied that the speed of light would
depend on the reference frame of the observer, but experiments
performed at the turn of the 20th century established that light in a
vacuum always travels at the same speed, independent of the reference
frame."

Of course, experiments performed at the turn of the 20th century
established just the opposite:

http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/arch.../02/Norton.pdf
John Norton: "Einstein regarded the Michelson-Morley experiment as
evidence for the principle of relativity, whereas later writers almost
universally use it as support for the light postulate of special
relativity......THE MICHELSON-MORLEY EXPERIMENT IS FULLY COMPATIBLE
WITH AN EMISSION THEORY OF LIGHT THAT CONTRADICTS THE LIGHT
POSTULATE."

The new aetherists would not question Einstein's false light postulate
but they are boldly attacking the principle of relativity - an idiocy
that could only happen in Einstein zombie world:

http://www.physorg.com/news111249257.html
"The UM group proposes, however, that an aether concept may still have
a place in physics: not representing a medium for light waves, but a
universal preferred frame of reference that is physical in nature. As
such - although the new aether retains the spirit of the old - there
are few similarities between the two. The UM researchers - Christopher
Eling, Ted Jacobson, and Coleman Miller - describe their aether as a
preferred state of rest at each point of spacetime. This preferred
state would not be the result of something known, such as a
gravitational field or cosmic background radiation, but may, they say,
arise from the structure of empty space in quantum gravity theory. The
new aether violates Lorentz symmetry, the principle stating that the
laws of physics must have the same form no matter the reference frame.
In other words, if a person drops a ball while standing in their
house, in a moving train, or in a rocket shooting through space, the
laws of physics describing the ball's motion are the same within each
frame. This concept is one of the foundations of special relativity."

Needless to say, new aetherists are closely related to old
relativists:

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/smol...n03_print.html
Lee Smolin: "A very exciting question we are now wrestling with is,
How drastically shall we be forced to modify Einstein's special theory
of relativity if the predicted effect is observed? The most severe
possibility is that the principle of relativity simply fails. The
principle of relativity basically means that velocity is relative and
there is no absolute meaning to being at rest. To contradict this
would mean that after all there is a preferred notion of rest in the
universe. This, in turn, would mean that velocity and speed are
absolute quantities. It would reverse 400 years of physics and take us
back before Galileo enunciated the principle that velocity is
relative. While the principle may have been approximately true, we
have been confronting the frightening possibility that the principle
fails when quantum gravity effects are taken into account. Recently,
people have understood that this possibility appears to be ruled out
by experiments that have already been done: that is, if the principle
of relativity fails when quantum gravity effects are taken into
account...."

Pentcho Valev

Perhaps new aetherists and old relativists have decided to elaborate
on the silliest text in the history of science - Chapter 7 in
Einstein's "Relativity":

http://www.bartleby.com/173/7.html
Albert Einstein: "For, like every other general law of nature, the law
of the transmission of light in vacuo must, according to the principle
of relativity, be the same for the railway carriage as reference-body
as when the rails are the body of reference. But, from our above
consideration, this would appear to be impossible. If every ray of
light is propagated relative to the embankment with the velocity c,
then for this reason it would appear that another law of propagation
of light must necessarily hold with respect to the carriage - a result
contradictory to the principle of relativity. In view of this dilemma
THERE APPEARS TO BE NOTHING ELSE FOR IT THAN TO ABANDON EITHER THE
PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVITY OR THE SIMPLE LAW OF THE PROPAGATION OF LIGHT
IN VACUO. Those of you who have carefully followed the preceding
discussion are almost sure to expect that we should retain the
principle of relativity, which appeals so convincingly to the
intellect because it is so natural and simple. The law of the
propagation of light in vacuo would then have to be replaced by a more
complicated law conformable to the principle of relativity. The
development of theoretical physics shows, however, that we cannot
pursue this course. The epoch-making theoretical investigations of H.
A. Lorentz on the electrodynamical and optical phenomena connected
with moving bodies show that experience in this domain leads
conclusively to a theory of electromagnetic phenomena, of which the
law of the constancy of the velocity of light in vacuo is a necessary
consequence. PROMINENT THEORETICAL PHYSICISTS WERE THEREFORE MORE
INCLINED TO REJECT THE PRINCIPLE OF RELATIVITY, in spite of the fact
that no empirical data had been found which were contradictory to this
principle. At this juncture the theory of relativity entered the
arena. As a result of an analysis of the physical conceptions of time
and space, it became evident that in reality there is not the least
incompatibility between the principle of relativity and the law of
propagation of light, and that by systematically holding fast to both
these laws a logically rigid theory could be arrived at."

So Einstein saved the principle of relativity prominent but silly
theoretical physicists wanted to reject, resolved the deep crisis
physics was in and built the miraculous modern physics we enjoy today.
However now that the miraculous modern physics is in a deep crisis, it
may prove profitable to reject the principle of relativity after all.
One thing is su THE SIMPLE LAW OF THE PROPAGATION OF LIGHT IN
VACUO:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/einstein/specrel/www/ "...light is
always propagated in empty space with a definite velocity c which is
independent of the state of motion of the emitting body."

should NEVER be rejected, no matter whether it is false or not. Both
new aetherists and old relativists feel that, without this simple law,
their money-spinner will be irreversibly destroyed.

Pentcho Valev