RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

Post a reply


This question is a means of preventing automated form submissions by spambots.
Smilies
:D :) ;) :( :o :shock: :? 8-) :lol: :x :P :oops: :cry: :evil: :twisted: :roll: :!: :?: :idea: :arrow: :| :mrgreen: :geek: :ugeek:

BBCode is ON
[img] is ON
[url] is ON
Smilies are ON

Topic review
   

Expand view Topic review: RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

Re: RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

by davesmith_au » Mon Nov 13, 2023 1:16 pm

Wow. I fully intended to post the eulogy I delivered at Wal's funeral, on behalf of The Thunderbolts Project, soon after the event. But life intervened, and the technical difficulties of moving sites and the forum being down for an extended period, helped none. So without further ado, and with deepest respect to Wal and his family, I share below what I wrote, and read at his service.

Walace William Thornhill 1942 – 2023

The voices I hear? Just Wal having a yarn with Dr. V and Albert E.

The world has lost a beautiful man, a scientific mind few could parrallel, a true natural philosopher.

I have lost a friend and colleague, yet Faye and her family have lost so much more. I extend deepest sympathies and love to the family at this difficult time not only from myself, but also on behalf of The Thunderbolts Project, and the many thousands of people around the globe who are left deeply saddened by the passing of one who meant so much to so many.

Gently spoken yet fiercely determined to seek a better understanding of the natural world and the cosmos, always willing to share his insights, to encourage others to explore new ideas, always with an insistance on sound scientific method, falsifiability, and a forensic approach to evidence, Wal became a giant upon whose shoulders many will aspire to stand, sharing that stage with Kristian Birkeland, Hannes Alven, Halton Arp and others.

I first knew of Wal in the mid 2000s. My late brother Carl was into solar physics and climate and astronomy, and in conversation he said I should suss out Electric Universe theory. I did so, thinking: “Here comes another theory some numb-nut came up with to explain things they didn’t understand.” I could not have been more wrong-erer. The terms “planetary catastrophism” and “camparative mythology” were added to my vocabulary.

My walk into Wal’s World mirrored that of thousands. A topic I had loved as a child had been spolied through my educative years. Dark matter, dark energy, warped space-time, extra dimensions, had me lose interest as ever more absurd, unverifiable bullshennanigans was lauded by people who should have known better. Wal changed all of that.

And he worked not in a vacuum, but rather shared and collaborated with others. The late Amy - and Mel Acheson, Cj Rasom, Michael Armstrong, Ev Cochrane, Ian Tresman, the late Dwardu Cardona, Electrical Engineer Don Scott, and Comparative Mythologist Dave Talbott, are just a few of the many. I am honoured to represent them here today.

As international interest in Electric Universe/Plasma Cosmology grew, Wal’s achievements did too. With David Talbott he co-authored Thunderbolts of the Gods and The Electric Universe and his first “mainstream” peer-reviewed paper on the electrical nature of stars and supernovae, was published in the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science in 2007.

2010 saw him awarded a gold medal by the European Telesio-Galilei Academy of Science and in 2013 he received the destinguished Sagnac Award from the Natural Philosophy Alliance.

Wal has presented at numerous international conferences and featured in many hours of written and video material made freely available on the Thunderbolts wesite and on his own. He was Chief Science Officer for The Thunderbolts Project and science officer for the SAFIRE project.

His legacy will be, I believe, the eventual deconstruction of gravity-centric astrophysics. At his passing he was working feverishly to have published his work on the electrical nature and cause, of gravity. Someone once said if the science is settled, it ain’t science. I heard Wal say it on more than one occasion.

It was one of the biggest privileges of my life to have known this truly great man, and I thank Faye and the family for the opportunity to share here today.

Final words are from Eric Idle:

“And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space 'Cause there's bugger all, down here on Earth”

Thank you.

Re: RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

by nick c » Wed Mar 22, 2023 2:54 pm

The only information is from his official obituary published in the Canberra Times
Wallace William (Wal) Thornhill
2 May 1942 – 7 February 2023

Passed away peacefully in Canberra,
surrounded by family.

Re: RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

by danda » Wed Mar 22, 2023 4:11 am

Is it rude to ask if anyone knows the cause of death? I hadn't heard that Wal was in ill health, and I see above he was actively working on a book, so it just seems very sudden.

Re: RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

by Keith Ness » Wed Mar 22, 2023 2:34 am

About a decade ago, it took me two years to find a web-site which I thought would both let me post what I had to say and have some useful response, and it was the Thunderbolts forum. My thanks to Wallace Thornhill.

Re: RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

by jacmac » Sat Mar 04, 2023 1:12 am

Thank you for keeping us informed nick.

Re: RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

by nick c » Fri Mar 03, 2023 2:24 am

Dave Smith has informed me that Wal's research assistant is determined to see that the book gets published, but there are still some loose ends, so it may take a bit of time.

Re: RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

by engakuis » Thu Mar 02, 2023 10:08 pm

Good evening everyone.
As all of you here, I was also very saddened by the passing of Wal Thornhill. He was very influential to me, a wonderful presenter and also evidently a nice bloke too.

I have made a tribute page on Telegram and I've put some links to Wal's online work.
If anyone has some material that they think would be a good addition to the page - and is a Telegram user - please could they add them?

https://t.me/walthornhill

Thank you.

Re: RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

by Faraday Cage » Thu Feb 23, 2023 11:41 am

My deepest condolences to friends and family of Wal. The TPODs have been a constant companion of mine since 2004 when I happened upon them. I was wondering why they had slowed down of late and have been impatiently wanting more new posts not knowing that Wal was unwell. I wish I had the scientific chops to carry the plasma torch on. RIP Wal.

Re: RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

by Lloyd » Tue Feb 21, 2023 7:24 pm

I guess I first heard of Wal from the Thoth newsletter which started about 1997 online. It's now still available at https://saturniancosmology.org/othergroup/thoth/ . I had read Velikovsky's books in 1969 and then learned about the then coming Pensee' magazine (by Talbott's) in an ad in Intellectual Digest in 1971. It came out in 1972 and lasted till 1975. Then Kronos magazine came along from 1976-86, I think. Aeon magazine started in 1988, but the issues were irregular. Catastrophism and Ancient History magazine was also around about then, but I didn't get all of those issues either. Then came the Thoth newsletter in the late 90s and finally this site in 2004 or 2005 and the forum in 2007, reincarnated after a crash in 2008. There was also a secret forum.

I heard of Wal's death just 2 days ago when doing my weekly Sci News post, the latest one being at https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/forum3/ph ... 8993#p8993
I put a star before this article from SIS, another Catastrophist online newsletter: *Black holes = Quasars [brief quote from Thornhill]
https://www.sis-group.org.uk/news/2023/ ... d-quasars/
Here's the relevant part of that article.
"At https://phys.org/news/2023-02-hundreds- ... asars.html … astronomers are reporting the discovery of over 400 new high red shift quasars using the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument [DESI]. The findings are on the pre-publication arXiv web site at https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2302.01777 … according to mainstream astronomy thinking quasars are luminous active galactic nuclei containg central black holes with accretions disks. Their red shifts are measured from the strong spectral lines that dominate their visible and ultra violet spectra. Just as importantly, astronomers regard quasars as the most distant compact objects in the observable universe. Spectra can be used to estimate the mass of supermassive black holes that constrain, it is thought, the evolution of quasars. Moreover, high red shift quasars that are also radio bright, are the signposts astronomers use to spot black hole activity in the early universe. Hence, it is imperative that red shift is a reality and they are looking at the furthest universe. Halton Arp, had a quite different idea of red shift, and quasars. His ideas were taken up by the recently deceased Wal Thornhill – see for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_4rO7iqxFE … which is a prediction of what the new James Webb Space Telescope may find. This, he suggests, might be the fact red shift theory is mistaken and quasars are much nearer than astronomers allow."
Stephen Smith used to write up most of the TPOD's (Thunderbolts Picture of the Day) and I think he got most of his info from Wal. The best TPOD debunking conventional redshift and quasar theory IMO was the one showing a high redshift Quasar in front of a low redshift Galaxy. I think Wal got a lot of his info on quasars from Halton Arp, with whom he seems to have had extensive communication. But Wal added more of the EU aspect to Arp's ideas. I don't think Arp embraced EU theory, or at least he doesn't seem to have discussed it publicly. Did he? But I think Wal discussed Arp's books in Thoth newsletter. By the way, physicist John Kierein also claims that many quasars are within our galaxy and that the redshift is mostly due to the Compton effect (high ionization), not the Doppler effect (high velocity, retreating at great distance).

Re: RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

by Phorce » Sat Feb 18, 2023 8:32 am

What a touching and profound service. My overall impression was one of the healthy man with a life filled family and many endeavours. A life not troubled by the Altruistic Narcissism that for the moment marres some important human affairs. What a privilege to be made part of what at times felt a like a private family service. But I think that reflected Wal’s ability to warmly communicate to so many people he never met face to face. All my respects to his family.

Re: RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

by Cognizant_Jon » Fri Feb 17, 2023 11:50 pm

I was attending the funeral service virtually this Thursday night at 7pm PST. I was very moved by his contributions to understanding not only the universe, but also described how things work using electrical principles. My first job out of high school was Electrical and Electronics Apprenticeship, so the theories and predictions he made were highly appropriate and sound logic in structure and arguments. This is how I "read" people.

While I cannot recall the exacts theorems and math for electrical and electronics at this point, I do remember that electrical and electronic devices are built to control the flow of electrons in ways appropriate to their intended use. Why would a living body be any different? Except, we need specific minerals (such a calcium for the heart, sodium and potassium for nerve cell transmission) to help bridge the gap for all our movements and functions.

Wal Thornhill's EU Theory does work at all scales cleanly and without any "square peg, round hole"/"mangling" bias. I do not know him personally, yet his science and his co-contributors have codified a form of science that can also explain (debunk?) Albert Einsteins "spooky action at a distance" puzzle. I already knew that information travels faster than light, even from a spiritual context.

EU Theory accurately explains how a parent, regardless of how far they from their children, just "know" when something is wrong with their child(ren) in simple to understand terms without being vague or confusing with bad math (imaginary numbers and such).

I am inspired to relearn physics and electronics training because of Wal Thornhill. He isn't the only one who has Da Vinci capability. I am going to (re)learn the basics of both to better understand EU Theory better. It will definitely be interesting to see the result of being a polymath.

Re: RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

by Open Mind » Fri Feb 17, 2023 6:16 pm

Maoi wrote: "(I'm sorry I don't know) Who is Michael ?"

I don't know either. But he was the exclusive representative of what I believed was an enormous community of scientists who've been completely reoriented to this new paradigm. It didn't feel like enough, but it was his family funeral, so perhaps a true tribute to the man for his work in this field should be a separate event.

I realize its still fresh, but I have thought about who might take over the spear tip of this movement, and I don't really know who that will be, but I do know it is absolutely critical that someone takes the reins, before we lose momentum. Its so important. In fact, I expect that critical importance of it will trigger in some new people the call to responsibility to step up. This is one of those moments. I'm very hopeful for that.

And yes, Wal's book definitely has to be finished and published as a minimum requirement to honour him. I've been waiting for that with eager anticipation.

Re: The Tribute to Wal Thornhill by his friend Michael

by Maol » Fri Feb 17, 2023 11:17 am

Open Mind wrote: Thu Feb 16, 2023 2:53 pm Livestream: Celebration of Wal Thornhill

Friday, February 17, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time, 3:00 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time, 4:00 a.m. Central European Time — Thursday, February 16, 2023 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 7:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

https://livestream.com/iv/walthornhill? ... mqLzokL1Hs
(I'm sorry I don't know) Who is Michael ? whose tribute to Mr. Thornhill starting at 36:00 in the video of the service is such an excellent summary of the EU and Wal Thornhill's accomplishment of providing enlightenment for whoever will understand. His ten-minute tribute is worth watching several times because it so succinctly summarizes Mr. Thornhill's view of the EU.

I hope he is successful in composing a summary for Thornill's unfinished book.

If he so chooses, he appears to be the successor to the position of standard bearer for the EU community.

Re: RIP Wal Thornhill (1942-2023)

by Robertus Maximus » Thu Feb 16, 2023 6:29 pm

I had the privilege of meeting Wal in 2013 at a SIS meeting in the UK.
He was a gentleman and a giant.
Because of him, I see further.

Re: The Wal Thornhill Invisible College

by Open Mind » Thu Feb 16, 2023 2:53 pm

Livestream: Celebration of Wal Thornhill

Friday, February 17, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time, 3:00 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time, 4:00 a.m. Central European Time — Thursday, February 16, 2023 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 7:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

https://livestream.com/iv/walthornhill? ... mqLzokL1Hs

Top