PersianPaladin wrote:davesmith_au wrote:Conveniently, the aether is *magical* ...

Yes.
I think this is the danger when unresolved issues and hypothetical entities start becoming reified.
Bottomline: We don't know if an "aether" even exists or that we need one for EM waves to propagate. Until we measure the supposed medium of propagation, then our speculation about its properties risks turning into real objects with the assumed reality of "black holes" and "dark matter".
All of the following is evidence of aether.
'NASA's Voyager Hits New Region at Solar System Edge'
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/de ... yager.html"Voyager is showing that what is outside is pushing back. ... Like cars piling up at a clogged freeway off-ramp, the increased intensity of the magnetic field shows that inward pressure from interstellar space is compacting it."
It is the aether which is displaced by the matter the solar system consists of which is pushing back and exerting inward pressure toward the solar system.
'Offset between dark matter and ordinary matter: evidence from a sample of 38 lensing clusters of galaxies'
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/100 ... 1475v1.pdf"Our data strongly support the idea that the gravitational potential in clusters is mainly due to a non-baryonic fluid, and any exotic field in gravitational theory must resemble that of CDM fields very closely."
The offset is due to the galaxy clusters moving through the aether. The analogy is a submarine moving through the water. You are under water. Two miles away from you are many lights. Moving between you and the lights one mile away is a submarine. The submarine displaces the water. The state of displacement of the water causes the center of the lensing of the light propagating through the water to be offset from the center of the submarine itself. The offset between the center of the lensing of the light propagating through the water displaced by the submarine and the center of the submarine itself is going to remain the same as the submarine moves through the water. The submarine continually displaces different regions of the water. The state of the water connected to and neighboring the submarine remains the same as the submarine moves through the water even though it is not the same water the submarine continually displaces. This is what is occurring physically in nature as the galaxy clusters move through the aether.
'Surprise! IBEX Finds No Bow ‘Shock’ Outside our Solar System'
http://www.universetoday.com/95094/surp ... ar-system/'“While bow shocks certainly exist ahead of many other stars, we’re finding that our Sun’s interaction doesn’t reach the critical threshold to form a shock,” said Dr. David McComas, principal investigator of the IBEX mission, “so a wave is a more accurate depiction of what’s happening ahead of our heliosphere — much like the wave made by the bow of a boat as it glides through the water.”'
The wave ahead of our heliosphere is an aether displacement wave. This is evidence of a moving 'particle', the solar system, having an associated aether wave.
'Hubble Finds Ghostly Ring of Dark Matter'
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubbl ... ature.html"Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope got a first-hand view of how dark matter behaves during a titanic collision between two galaxy clusters. The wreck created a ripple of dark mater, which is somewhat similar to a ripple formed in a pond when a rock hits the water."
The 'pond' consists of aether. The moving 'particles' are the galaxy clusters. The ripple is an aether displacement wave. The ripple is a gravitational wave. This is also evidence of a moving 'particle', the galaxy clusters, having an associated aether wave.
'Dark Matter Core Defies Explanation in NASA Hubble Image '
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/ma ... _Core.html"This technique revealed the dark matter in Abell 520 had collected into a "dark core," containing far fewer galaxies than would be expected if the dark matter and galaxies were anchored together. Most of the galaxies apparently have sailed far away from the collision. "This result is a puzzle," said astronomer James Jee of the University of California in Davis, lead author of paper about the results available online in The Astrophysical Journal. "Dark matter is not behaving as predicted, and it's not obviously clear what is going on. It is difficult to explain this Hubble observation with the current theories of galaxy formation and dark matter.""
The dark matter core does not defy explanation. The dark matter core is not a puzzle. The dark matter core is not difficult to explain. It is obviously clear what is going on.
Dark matter and galaxies are not anchored together. Matter moves through and displaces the aether.
'Giant black hole kicked out of home galaxy'
http://www.astronomy.com/en/News-Observ ... alaxy.aspx"But these new data support the idea that gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of space first predicted by Albert Einstein but never detected directly — can exert an extremely powerful force."
The fabric of space is the aether.
Gravitational waves are ripples in the aether.
What ripples when galaxy clusters collide is what waves in a double slit experiment; the aether.
Einstein's gravitational wave is de Broglie's pilot-wave.
They are both aether displacement waves.
With regard to gravity - we have strong signs that gravity is inter-related with electromagnetism. We see this with the EM field variation on both the Earth and the Moon - as a compelling example. Of course, we are yet to develop the instruments sensitive enough to assume the quantization of charge that represents gravity interactions
Displaced aether pushing back toward matter is gravity.
Maxwell's displacement current is a physical displacement of the aether.