A lot of "alternative" ideas floating around, physics related or not, feature a line similar to "They laughed at Einstein...". The ECI is based on the point in the passage at which this phrase first appears.
Details as yet are sketchy - I was thinking maybe a word count, starting at zero for the first word and counting to the first part of the phrase. Alternatively, the ECI could be defined as the inverse of this, so that lower scores indicate a later occurence (and, of course, a score of exactly zero means that there is no mention whatsoever). My preference is with the latter.
There could also be a relative ECI, which is always between 0 and 1, which would simply be ratio of the ECI to the maximum possible for that document (for example, ratio of number of words before Einstein comparision to total word count).
And remember : they also laughed at Popov.-- Detly, Sep 02 2003 50 points! http://math.ucr.edu.../baez/crackpot.html [lubbit, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Questions to help distinguish a pseudoscience from a protoscience http://physics.syr..../PSEUDO/moller.htmlAnother interesting test [Detly, Jun 07 2005] They also laughed at Carrot Top. Oh, wait...-- DeathNinja, Sep 03 2003 I'm hung like Einstein and smart as a horse. No, wai--- thumbwax, Sep 03 2003 I think someone should start using "They laughed at Einstein" as a piece of encouraging advice to young stand-up comics, citing how Einstein started out with a promising career in stand-up comedy, only to be derailed into having work on the Bomb when the war came.
"Don't worry, you'll make 'em laugh. You're smart. Remember, they laughed at Einstein."-- ywong, Sep 03 2003 Didn't this originate with: Einstein = Many Chuckles 2 ?-- FarmerJohn, Sep 03 2003 They laugh at me, but i'll show them, i'll show you ALL! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!-- Mind_Boggle, Sep 03 2003 Tom and Jerry always makes me laugh.-- PeterSilly, Sep 03 2003 They laughed at Darwin, they laughed at Copernicus, they threatened to burn Gallileo (but they didn't laugh at Newton, because by all accounts he was a nasty piece of work)
They also laughed at Sir Clive Sinclair, George W Bush and Usama bin Laden.
Just because you sound silly doesn't make you clever.-- FloridaManatee, Sep 03 2003 But if I think that I sound clever people tend to laugh. So I must be silly.-- nichpo, Sep 03 2003 See, I didn't know they laughed at Einstein. Whoever they were. Perhaps he told a witty joke and it was entirely appropriate. Or maybe it was his hair.-- waugsqueke, Sep 03 2003 They certainly do seem to be having a lot of fun at other peoples' expense.-- beauxeault, Sep 03 2003 I don't think they ever laughed at Tesla. Shocking really.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 03 2003 I remember Tesla coils in Command and Conquer. Then I read his actual work.-- benlevi7, Sep 03 2003 who exactly is "they" anyway?-- Mind_Boggle, Sep 03 2003 Oh no, UnaBubba's on to me....GOTTA GO!-- Mind_Boggle, Sep 03 2003 I see this idea has been slightly fishboned... well, I didn't expect it to fly at first. They fishboned Einstein, too.
[ywong] That reminds me of the Far Side cartoon about a knee injury forcing Einstein out of basketball, his career of choice.-- Detly, Sep 03 2003 They laughed at Maxwell, but that's because he always rode one of those penny farthing bikes.-- Detly, Sep 03 2003 you know, they laughed at George W. Bush....but that's probably because he is an idiot, not a genious-- Mind_Boggle, Sep 04 2003 And they laughed at Einstein because he had that idiotic droopy moustache.-- DrBob, Sep 04 2003 ...Which is why nobody laughed at Dali.-- Detly, Sep 04 2003 He was too inquisitive.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 05 2003 Neither did anybody laugh at the Spanish Inquisition.-- PeterSilly, Sep 05 2003 Yes they did, but not for very long.-- Detly, Sep 07 2003 I'm not aware of them having laughed at Einstein anyway. My understanding is that he had no difficulty getting his early important work published. And while it was and is hard to grasp, it was never "kooky" or laughable.-- snarfyguy, Sep 08 2003 [snarfguy] That's not the point. You know that. I know that. I've read some of his early articles, and it doesn't provoke nearly as much laughter as my 1896 "Modern Science and Modern Thought" textbook expounding the aether. ;)
But it's a phrase that seems to occur fairly consistently in crackpot theories to qualify apparent absurdity.-- Detly, Sep 08 2003 And on the HB, the index starts counting when the phase "This *is* meant to be for a forum for half-baked ideas..." appears.-- lubbit, Sep 23 2003 Ironically, a google search for the phrase "they laughed at Einstien" returns this as the first result. Oh dear.-- Detly, Sep 29 2003 We need a "lost googlers section." Hmmm... <resists urge to post a "Lost Googlers This Way" idea>-- Detly, Oct 08 2003 Dammit - [lubbit] got there before I did, and I didn't even notice!-- Detly, Oct 16 2003 They laughed at Detly, but then he's no Einstein.-- Worldgineer, Oct 17 2003 Would it help if I stopped wearing the clown suit?-- Detly, Oct 19 2003 I laughed at them.-- Gulherme, Oct 19 2003 Added an interesting link. My favourite is point #10 - since some of the best textbooks on group theory in physics are at least 30 years old.-- Detly, Jun 07 2005 random, halfbakery