Creative Speculation

The Great Thermite Hunt began when "truthers" finally realized that rational people weren't buying theories about magical silent explosives: We don't hear the distinctive sound of detonations, said Steven Jones, because "they" melted through the steel with thermite (although he can't explain how melting through so many columns could be synchronized to cause a "sudden" collapse). And then, "truthers" just can't stop themselves from finding "evidence" of magical silent explosions throwing stuff all over the place. Calling this nonsense a "theory" is an exaggeration, but the current state of what passes for thinking in the "truth movement" -- at least among those who actually try to resolve this cognitive dissonance -- seems to be that this must have been super-secret high-tech thermite, so anything's possible. Arthur Clark said that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, so "truthers" take that to mean that the laws of physics are meaningless; any magical thing you can think of is possible with sufficiently advanced technology.

But as always, the question is: why should we prefer this extraordinary explanation when ordinary physics explains the collapses quite well? How about some credible evidence? Here's a fine example of what we get instead: Chandler declares that the stuff pouring out of the building had the "color temperature of molten iron." One might think that a former high school physics teacher would know at least a little about video imaging, but that claim exposes profound ignorance. Digital cameras do not -- cannot -- capture "true color" even within their dynamic range (i.e. the difference between the brightest and darkest pixels), and when a bright light "blows out" pixels to white, there's no information in those saturated pixels about either color or object details. Furthermore, Chandler's logic is faulty: Even if the stuff flowing out of the building did have the color temperature of molten iron, that doesn't mean it was molten iron, and even if it was molten iron, that doesn't mean it was from thermite melting. What that stuff has always reminded me of was the stuff that I saw flow out of an exploding transformer on a telephone pole that was hit by lightening, and "truthers" prefer to ignore that the area where the stuff was seen housed a large bank of lead-acid batteries for emergency power. Once again, people who would like to see all mundane explanations ruled out before accepting an extraordinary one are disappointed by "truther science."

For 10 years, Gage & Co have led the "truth movement" down the "controlled demolition" blind alley. He can count the number of people who have signed his bogus petition (petition to whom, if he doesn't trust the government?) and point to opinion polls showing how many people have been duped by the propaganda, but there is a very simple reason why the vast majority of qualified people consider the "truth movement" to be an insignificant internet cult: It's built on pseudo-scientific bullshit.

Happy anniversary.

ETA: Here's some molten aluminum showing the "color temperature of molten iron":