From: wthyde1953@gmail.com   
      
   Stefan Ram wrote:   
   > William Hyde  wrote or quoted:   
   >> I actually learned something in sci.physics!  That takes me back ...   
   >   
   >    But the exact date when it takes you back is not clear,   
      
   >    since people complaining that this newsgroup was turning   
   >    into some pointless chatter spot goes way back!   
      
   About thirty years in my case.   
      
   Some friends were occasionally posting on some group called (I think),   
   sci.electromagnetism, where most posts were about problems from Jackson   
   and the like.  One friend was working on the electric fields inside   
   raindrops - with spherical inclusions of, e.g. dust - and found the   
   group useful (rather amazing things happen inside a raindrop).   
      
   Then on one fateful day came the post:   
      
   "What can we do about this gravity thing anyway?"   
      
   and the group was flooded with True Believers.  Worse, with True   
   Believers who disagreed with each other and argued incessantly as to   
   just which of them knew the science that those silly/conspiratorial/   
   nonexistent physicists wouldn't tell the world, or did not know.   
      
   Filters were not as good then (they kill 90% of the posts here now) and   
   everyone actually interested in electromagnetism left the group.   
      
      
   William Hyde   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)