Crackpot index

[BAJR]

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/crackpot.html

Where oh where has this been all our life... at last the opportunity to score a crackpot - using scientific methods

I already have some people in mind!

Now this one is for Physics.

What can stop us from creating the Pseudo-Archae-Crackpot Index

simple method for rating potentially revolutionary contributions to physics:

A -5 point starting credit.
1 point for every statement that is widely agreed on to be false.
2 points for every statement that is clearly vacuous.
3 points for every statement that is logically inconsistent.
5 points for each such statement that is adhered to despite careful correction.
5 points for using a thought experiment that contradicts the results of a widely accepted real experiment.
5 points for each word in all capital letters (except for those with defective keyboards).
5 points for each mention of "Einstien", "Hawkins" or "Feynmann".
10 points for each claim that quantum mechanics is fundamentally misguided (without good evidence).
10 points for pointing out that you have gone to school, as if this were evidence of sanity.
10 points for beginning the description of your theory by saying how long you have been working on it. (10 more for emphasizing that you worked on your own.)
10 points for mailing your theory to someone you don't know personally and asking them not to tell anyone else about it, for fear that your ideas will be stolen.
10 points for offering prize money to anyone who proves and/or finds any flaws in your theory.
10 points for each new term you invent and use without properly defining it.
10 points for each statement along the lines of "I'm not good at math, but my theory is conceptually right, so all I need is for someone to express it in terms of equations".

read the whole index here:
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/crackpot.html
and think about our own BAJR Index

:o)

[P Prentice]

10 points for claiming you are a scientist
50 points for claiming you are an archaeologist if you have never 'published' anything that contributes to archaeological study

[CARTOON REALITY]

100 points for choosing archaeology as a career.

[CARTOON REALITY]

50 points for prefixing your own name with the title 'eminent archaeologist.'

[CARTOON REALITY]

I've scored 210 points so far!!

[RedEarth]

50 points for prefixing your own name with the title 'eminent archaeologist.'

Or similar, such as 'foremost expert in ....', 'leading authority on....'. Score should be times by 100 if this is also combined with the point made by Prentice about having never properly published anything on the subject. I could think of a couple who would have a few hundred points by now.

How about also: good at gaining coverage in local press, or any press for that matter, but particularly those who don't ask too many difficult questions. Again, times by 100 if they have no published record other than appearances in local newspapers. Also points scored for publishing only via a blog/website/own self-'published' 'book' printed off on home computer and spiral bound. It's all about the publication record!

[Marcus Brody]

Having been called out to view a number of these, all of which turned out to be either sewers or big field drains, I'd suggest the following:

1 point for finding a' secret tunnel'
+2 points if you claim it was built by monks
+ a further 3 points if you claim it was built by the Templars
Jackpot if you claim it was built by the Templars to hide the Holy Grail

[PeterM]

5 points if the bloke showing you round the site claims to BE a Templar with access to secret records of the site, held on Malta (happened to me once!!)

[CARTOON REALITY]

5 points if the bloke showing you round the site claims to BE a Templar with access to secret records of the site, held on Malta (happened to me once!!)

It would be hilarious if it wasn't all true . . .

And I lost my score after the thousand mark.

[Unitof1]

50 points for claiming you are an archaeologist if you have never 'published' anything that contributes to archaeological study

must be the definition for a digger