The Peter Lynds Affair: Comments
(most recent posts first)
Hi there, it was my fat mouth that started this by sending in the email questioning the identity brooke jones. I just want to say here that I feel really bad for causing any distress to Peter Lynds and really (especially in the light of the David Kelly suicide) we need to bear in mind that living people shouldn't be subjected to this kind of prying unless they've really done something terrible. I hope he *did* invent Brooke Jones, good luck to him for having some media nous. The important thing is that people are talking about Zeno which can never be a bad thing... Alex, maybe you should take the Peter Lynds stuff down from your site.
Dan
Thursday, October 16, 2003 at 09:44:09
Hey! I came across your book in a huge used bookstore here. I bought it, and love it. Your work on hoaxes is phenomenal. I have been reading the �Peter Lynds� situation on the website; I even went as far as to do some digging on my own (with no luck). I just wanted to share my opinion, though. There is definitely something very strange going on with this� the IP addresses, to me, highly suggest that �Peter,� �Brooke,� �Wolfgang,� �Matt,� and all the other �people� are the same person. It is not new to use multiple names on the Internet, and it�s not new that someone pretends to be someone else, or to even support themselves� but still, I feel that this �Peter Lynds� thing is a mess. �The Next Einstein,� right? I wonder, then, how �the next Einstein� would create a fake publicity agent, and use his home address� Why can�t such an intelligent person find a way around this? Then the person goes on a mission: posting on various forums throughout the Internet, as someone else, supporting �himself.� Again, the �the next Einstein� didn�t expect the IP addresses to be a problem�? I even know about IP addresses, and I am definitely nowhere near being a genius. I am totally behind you on this� The �Peter Lynds� situation is insane; if he is so intelligent and the paper is so well done, then why did he create all these other supporters to talk about how great the paper is and how smart �Peter Lynds� is? Shouldn�t the paper speak for itself? So, �Peter� is obviously unsure of his work, or he is trying to accelerate the response from the scientific world. To prove, maybe, that the scientific world will believe any theory? Or, it could be someone who has tried to get some previous papers published, and was rejected� so they wrote a lesser quality paper, changed the name, and gave it a lot of hype (a la �Brooke�). Whatever the case, there is no way that this is all as �Peter Lynds� has claimed that it is. I�m interested in seeing what the conclusion of this will be.
Matthew
Wednesday, October 8, 2003 9:22 AM
Peter lynds is not a hoax ,he's a great person and why don't you open your eyes and see that he is a god send
mark baker
Friday, October 03, 2003 at 02:49:00
Okay, I'm splashing cold water on my face. Trying to get a grip on reality. Matt, I don't think you're Peter Lynds. Sorry for suspecting you were. And Peter, sorry to throw yet another accusation against you. This time it proved baseless. When I looked more closely, it appears that while Matt and Peter are both xtra.co.nz users, Matt seems to be using a broadband connection, while Peter always connects from a dialup line. At least, that's what the IP info reveals. It's time to get away from this computer for a while and get a breath of fresh air.
Alex
Tuesday, September 09, 2003 at 13:33
Hah! Well, maybe Matt isn't Peter Lynds. Who knows. This whole thing is turning me into the kind of guy who sees villains everywhere. All I know is that I suspect Peter Lynds has been using aliases on message boards throughout the internet to post positive comments about himself and his work. So when I see a comment coming in through my anonymous comment box from someone using Lynds's ISP, the red flags immediately go up in my mind. Matt, if you emailed me directly from your xtra.co.nz email account, not through my anonymous comment box, I'd have no doubt about your identity.
Alex
Tuesday, September 09, 2003 at 10:57
Hmmm. I have the same ISP as Peter Lynds. One small fact about New Zealand; it is not very big. The main provider of internet access in New Zealand, is Telecom New Zealands subsidiary Xtra. The only reason I even became interested in this story, is that I read about museumofhoaxes.com in an Xtra newsletter. So yes, you got me, I am Peter Lynds. Foiled again in an incredibly subtle attempt to cast all suspicion from me. You guys are good.
Matt
Tuesday, September 09, 2003 at 02:16:42
I have reason to suspect that the previous message from 'Matt' was sent by Peter Lynds himself. Why? Because it was sent from someone using the same ISP as Peter Lynds: xtra.co.nz. I'm contacting xtra.co.nz to see if they'll confirm my suspicion. I know I'm probably sounding like a conspiracy theorist, but it just seems to me to stretch belief to accept that all these cheerleaders for Peter Lynds who come out of the woodwork just happen to all use the same ISP based in New Zealand. (For another Peter Lynds cheerleader using xtra.co.nz check out http://web.utk.edu/~sps/wwwboard/messages/61.html
Alex
Monday, September 08, 2003 at 09:59
Here is the guys website. It seems pretty legit to me: http://www.peterlynds.net.nz
Matt
Sunday, September 07, 2003 at 22:39:17
Interesting developments on Peter Lynds.
I found it most exciting to read of Lynds' paper when it was forwarded to me by a friend.
What first caught my attention was that Lynds' proposition was in essence identical to one I had floated in 1979 while attending Strake Jesuit College Prep. in Houston, TX. During a roundtable discussion of students and faculty I suggested that Time is at best a immaginary yardstick against which we attempt to quantify and predict the paths and coordinates of particles in motion. I fleshed this idea out a bit, but needless to say, neither my fellow students nor the attending faculty were much impressed by such an obscure notion, especially coming from a 16 year old computer geek with a fascination for cosmology.
Well, unthwarted by my roundtable reception, I have maintained the firm conviction that 'Time' doesn't hold up to close scrutiny; personal precognitive and extrasensory experiences, along with superluminal research results seem to back this up, but on to Lynds' identity.
I contacted Brooke Jones via e-mail and received Lynds' e-mail address for future communications, along with a tersely worded 'Thank you for your interest'. I have yet to contact Peter Lynds; I wanted to read more of his work....Then I saw your Lynds/Jones page. Interesting.
Then I saw the photo at http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=peter+lynds. If this is indeed a photo of THE 'Peter Lynds', 'he' looks remarkably like a 'she'; about a 27 year old 'she', in fact. Could this be Brooke Jones?
Anyway, I hope we get to the bottom of the identity question someday. As for Peter Lynds' work, whether published and promoted under an alias or not, I think it deserves serious consideration.
That's all!
David Huff, Terlingua, TX
Saturday, August 23, 2003 11:06 AM
Dear Alex,
I couldn't care less if you think me or Brooke don't exist. If I payed any attention to the conspiracy theories about me that have popped up in the past few weeks, I'd end up as crazy as the people that think of them. The reason I took offence originally to you keeping that post up, was that I'd written and pointed out to you that the Wellington Sharebroker mentioned was my uncle, that Brooke Jones and I certainly existed, that you didn't seem to reailse that you were dealing with people's reputations, and yet you still kept it up. I wrote to you once more, and I think rather politely given the circumstances, asked that it please be removed. The next time I checked, not only had you not removed it, but you'd listed my phone number, home address, as well as that of some of my relatives, posted an angry e-mail to you from my father (also informing you that the entry was crazy), bought my mum into things (who died of caner 4 months ago), my father (who lives 1000km away), as well as said that Brooke didn't exist either. The original post also said I was 17 year old radio school student.
Given the above, possibly you can understand why I think that in keeping the post up, that you were acting unethically. Also why after you'd listed my contact details and bought my mum into things, I threatened legal action if you didn't remove what you'd posted.
Peter Lynds
Friday, August 22, 2003 at 21:37:29
Hope you don't get sued, dude, lol! This is a great website, keeps me extremely entertained whilst I work my graveyard shift as a telephone operator!! Good luck, and keep up the great work!!
Chelsea x
Thursday, August 21, 2003 at 23:48:36
A bit of research for you. Just a week ago, a Peter Lynds from an insurance broker in Wellington NZ was advising a top finance website on the state of the economy: "Broker Peter Lynds of Direct Broking said there were few signs of the market being affected by concerns about a suspected case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease case in the Waikato. "
In the UK's Guardian paper Lynds mentioned he came up with his theory when he was 'bored working in a dead end job in insurance'. Could it be the same guy? Apparently not:
Lynds, who's supposed to be a tutor at a Radio College in fact is listed as a *student* there. Check out http://www.broadcasting.co.nz/essays/ for that familiar essay style! Also on the current website: "Peter is one of the best creative talents we've ever had the privilege of having here at the school." - with the photo mysteriously removed. To see the picture that's missing try:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=peter+lynds
He looks about 16-17 yrs old! Certainly not the 27 yr old of 'Brooke's' press releases.
Also, it appears that this 'press officer' Brooke Jones, author of the many articles that fuelled this controversy, has a similar IP address to Lynds, and has never used her email address except in relation to this news story.
Summary? I think he's a very bright 17 yr old radio student, who's written some genuine philosophical speculations on time, then fancies having a go at spreading it around, the response being more than he could have imagined. He is also Brooke Jones. To pad out his story, he's using another 'Peter Lynds' from Wellington, the insurance broker, as a cover.
It's a kind of a hoax, but that doesn't mean he's wrong about time...
Sunday, August 17, 2003 at 19:13:24