[Addressed to those who find special relativity and quantum mechanics
hard to swallow... You know who you are.]

If you think that the basis of special relativity and quantum mechanics
is purely mathematical and have no basis in reality, then it is likely that:

  - you haven't been taught the subjects well, and/or
  - you got bogged down and frustrated with the math and gave up before
    you could see the concepts clearly, and/or
  - you think that mathematics is inherently abstract, and have not
    realized that the math is the only way to make rigorous, quantitative
    predictions of behavior, as a good theory is required to do.

If you think that the concepts of special relativity and quantum
mechanics are illogical and fly in the face of reason, then it is likely that:

  - you haven't been taught the subjects well, and/or
  - you have misconceived those concepts and have attached erroneous
    statements to those concepts that do not in fact apply, and/or
  - you do not realize that it is not the concepts that are
    counterintuitive, but instead it is the actual observed behavior that
    is counterintuitive and which requires these concepts (which are
    actually quite simple), and/or
  - you are trying to force a deterministic preconception involving
    interacting, particle-like objects, where it is not obvious that such a
    view is warranted.

If you think that special relativity and quantum mechanics are
conspiracies designed to keep physics esoteric and physicists employed,
then it is likely you haven't considered that:

  - physicists would not have anything to gain by pushing theories that
    do *not* describe nature well, or which would require so much trial and
    error in fudging parameters to get them to fit that it would be an
    exercise in inefficiency and an invitation for error, and/or
  - physicists spend a good fraction of their time explaining their
    thinking to students, many of whom do not use their education for
    careers in professional physics, and yet there is no initiation rite or
    secrecy pact that would keep them from revealing a rotten
    undercarriage, and/or
  - industry would have no reason to invest megadollars on claims made by
    physicists if they ended up being wrong, and/or
  - special relativity and quantum mechanics have been thoroughly -- and
    I mean thoroughly -- tested (and the results published) by scientists
    who have no vested interest in the success of either of these theories.

This is a reminder, in the anniversary of the "year of the miracles,"
that -- if you think the problems with special relativity and quantum
mechanics are obvious -- you are not special, you are not the first,
and you're probably not well-equipped in your quest. You are preceded
by hundreds who have devoted all of their training, their intellectual
fire, their energy, and their years to determining that if those
theories have problems, they are certainly not obvious. In fact, as you
set sail from comfortable home shores to prove once and for all that
the world is flat, it would be wise to remember that the sailors that
set off before you were not fools or novices or liars, and they had
better boats and better crews than you.

PD