I was asked if I would do a telephone interview last Tuesday with a free-lance journalist for Vice magazine! I immediately conjured up images of the kind of magazine it might be, but thought, 'hell, any publicity is good publicity!'
As it happens it isn't that kind at all. It has a readership of 100,000 plus, per month in the UK and over a million world-wide. The actual interview took about 45 minutes and yet you could read the article in five minutes; obviously it was hugely abbreviated and, as a writer myself, I understand the rigours journalists are required to adhere to, keep it short, succinct and sensationalise anything that needs it. But that headline I shall have to live with! I only responded to the question, 'do you believe you have the solution?', with 'yes, of course and I am building a wheel to prove it,' which is what I've been doing for most of my life, so far without success. Having said that I have made great strides forward in understanding how it would be possible, so the answer is correct, I do believe I have the solution and I expect to prove it very shortly,
I was amused to learn the following, from one comment about the article, and I quote:
Betteridge's law of headlines is an adage that states: "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." It is named after Ian Betteridge, a British technology journalist, although the general concept is much older. The observation has also been called "Davis' law", or just the "journalistic principle". In the field of particle physics, the concept has been referred to as Hinchliffe's Rule.
Betteridge explained the concept in a February 2009 article:
This story is a great demonstration of my maxim that any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word "no". The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably bullshit, and don’t actually have the sources and facts to back it up, but still want to run it.
Although the interview has been greatly abbreviated, there is nothing there that I didn't say, but it is amazing, when you read your own words, how you cannot help wishing you could have another go at saying what you meant! Any way I'm pleased overall with what was said and if it can bring more people to believe that Bessler was genuine then that is good. This magazine is largely read by the younger generation and there are too many of us oldies stil trying to solve this puzzle and fresh younger views can only help to reach the answer to this enduring puzzle..
A German publisher is going to publish my original book in German, hopefully in October and this article fits in quite well with that. I note that there is a German version of the magazine and perhaps they will include me in it?
As it happens it isn't that kind at all. It has a readership of 100,000 plus, per month in the UK and over a million world-wide. The actual interview took about 45 minutes and yet you could read the article in five minutes; obviously it was hugely abbreviated and, as a writer myself, I understand the rigours journalists are required to adhere to, keep it short, succinct and sensationalise anything that needs it. But that headline I shall have to live with! I only responded to the question, 'do you believe you have the solution?', with 'yes, of course and I am building a wheel to prove it,' which is what I've been doing for most of my life, so far without success. Having said that I have made great strides forward in understanding how it would be possible, so the answer is correct, I do believe I have the solution and I expect to prove it very shortly,
I was amused to learn the following, from one comment about the article, and I quote:
Betteridge's law of headlines is an adage that states: "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." It is named after Ian Betteridge, a British technology journalist, although the general concept is much older. The observation has also been called "Davis' law", or just the "journalistic principle". In the field of particle physics, the concept has been referred to as Hinchliffe's Rule.
Betteridge explained the concept in a February 2009 article:
This story is a great demonstration of my maxim that any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word "no". The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably bullshit, and don’t actually have the sources and facts to back it up, but still want to run it.
Although the interview has been greatly abbreviated, there is nothing there that I didn't say, but it is amazing, when you read your own words, how you cannot help wishing you could have another go at saying what you meant! Any way I'm pleased overall with what was said and if it can bring more people to believe that Bessler was genuine then that is good. This magazine is largely read by the younger generation and there are too many of us oldies stil trying to solve this puzzle and fresh younger views can only help to reach the answer to this enduring puzzle..
A German publisher is going to publish my original book in German, hopefully in October and this article fits in quite well with that. I note that there is a German version of the magazine and perhaps they will include me in it?
Finally, I was amazed to see that the very first comment on the article was a reference to Walter White, otherwise known as Heisenberg in the TV series 'Breaking Bad'. My family have been referring to me as Heisenberg ever since we all saw the series - and sadly, I've got a Heisenberg T shirt! I always thought the resemblance was minimla but obviously there is more to this than meets the eye., but I'm not sure that Bryan Cranston (who plays Heisenberg) would be as flattered as I am by the suggested similarity.
He looks a lot meaner than I do!
One more thing, the pictures of Bessler which you can see in the background of the a photo of my workshop are produced by my long time friend, ovyyus at http://www.orffyre.com./
You read the magazine article at
JC
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Damn ... coincidentally I have been watching Breaking Bad over the last couple days on Netflix . Saw the picture of you in your shop and cannot disagree with the mentioned comment . Sir JohnWalter WhiteCollins .
ReplyDeleteMaybe you can " break bad " and get that wheel moving .
I'd never seen any www.vice page before.
ReplyDeleteSpent an hour viewing things there and found it enlightening and useful.
Thought your article, John, was fairly done by them, featuring no 'Gotcha Journalism' nor thrown soft balls per se.
Sure, there could have been more but, the general essential whole of the matter got out, but . . . I cannot imagine that Puthoff is likely to be 100% amused.
I trust and hope that your son and son-in-law do not take their seeming insolence too far into seriousness? Sometimes requisite limits need to be placed as necessity demands?
Commentary following was less-than-fair to perceptive. Given the audience and age factor generally, it was not discouraging.
It is true that bit about any publicity being good publicity.
Duly noted too, is the Ovyyus portrait hanging there. It needs a contemporaneous style frame very badly. (Not having seen any hide nor even hair of other things as painted by him, the Ovyyan, I am beginning to wonder if he himself created it after all. What ELSE might he have done, painting-wise, so as to lend weight to the assertion that he did? Overly curious minds can and do wonder.)
I wonder why there are so few commenting about this perfectly good thread?
ReplyDelete"He looks a lot meaner than I do!"
John, this may be because you are appearing especially friendly. If you were to not, then differences might totally vanish.
I see very little difference between the two individuals shown. Even if my life depended on it, I could not tell which was actually your true self, and which the contract-killer(?). Sorry.
If the one on the right is a famous actor(?) then I would advise that you might consider presenting yourself to his manager for a part as his twin brother, for which they would custom-write some really interesting new plots. Much money would then flow into the B-W building/designing coffers and, as well, we PM fans could then state in all truth that we are acquainted with a famous actor/author.
Once done, this one thing might lead to yet another, with more opportunities for parts presenting themselves on-and-on ad infinitum. As they'd likely develop, the range of possibilities might become truly limitless and highly remunerative.
One possible problem with such a rosy scenario coming to fruition, however, might be that that one last wheel job (the one that WOULD have worked) would not ever be finished because of no time being available between scene takes and promotional tours, autograph signings, etc.
To all likely-so, such an untoward advent would be one most disappointing but, Fame after all would be beckoning, and this does have it's little exchange prices to be paid.
Go for it !!
Nice idea James, but I am not a good public performer. I once gave a lecture at a convention in Glastonbury and arranged to have it videoed.... I've never got past watching the first excruciating five minutes, and all I had to do was read it out aloud! Perhaps there is some mileage in celebrity look-a-likes? No way, I can only imagine how demeaning that would be.
DeleteHave no fear, the wheel will be finished and running for many years before the day dawns when I become an actor!
JC
Testing
ReplyDeleteIt worked! I have not been able to post here for days. The posts disappear and my emails have being intercepted from my email address .
ReplyDeleteHas this happened to other people trying to post here ?
I was trying to email you John about not being able to post here and it said that the emails were being intercepted and not going through !
ReplyDeleteSorry you had trouble posting, Ealadha, nothing reported here so I guess it's one of those bugs that plagues the internet from time to time.
Delete