Collegian Staff
BERKELEY, SVTS, May 6 -- Following revelations from Penn State University regarding an increase in the rating of Boston's supernatural energy on the widely used Kellner Scale, the Thread Physics Department of Berkley University issued a report of its own with the cooperation of Dr. Edgar Palmer of the Penn State Department of Esoteric Studies relating to threads with a Kellner rating of 0. Such “zero magic” or “non magical” threads appear, according to the report, to have a number of unique properties such as unusual thread commonality, gate connections, so called “receptive” properties, residential abilities regarding the supernatural and technology and occasional perceptive “groupthink”.
The most famous zero magic thread is Camp Century, the remnants of a 1960’s Army arctic station on a glacier in Greenland. Camp Century maintains a modern technology level (PSTL Rating of 6) but also seems to act as a hub of over 40 intermittent gates that connect to a number of other zero magic threads such as: Fascist Croatia, DeGaulle France, "Unbroken" Laos (a hard to contact thread which appears to be late 1960s Laos during the Vietnam War) and the unusual Kingdom (a Thread of medieval recreationists from pre-Event Pennsylvania).
“Research indicates that Camp Century and the Kingdom have rather unusual gate properties” said Dr. Narasimba Naharaj of Berkley's Council of Elrics in the Silicon Valley Technology Sphere. “In the first case, Camp Century has a single gate in a rather distant location that currently cycles to 44 different threads but there is evidence that this has changed more than once along with changes to the timeline. The Kingdom appears to have manifested useful Rift Gates on two occasions that fit the need of one of the permanent residents. This is very unusual.”
The report posits that zero magic Threads are even more reactive to the Observer Effect, where Thread physics are affected by the beliefs of those in them. Equations from the Silicon Valley Technology Sphere seem to indicate this is because a Kellner rating of 0 requires an order of magnitude less energy than even a Kellner rating of 1, giving more energy to "conform" to the desires and wills of those in the Thread.
Einstein-FFFFE00A, top physicist in the Scientist Caste of the Hive said, "The men of Camp Century strongly desired contact, but knew they were isolated... Which, via enhanced Observer Effect, resulted in a strange Gate far outside their main complex and a unique situation regarding radio contact."
Einstein-FFFFE00A went on to state that strong need caused the Rift Gates to appear in the Kingdom, and a strong desire to experience medieval reality by its inhabitants caused the Kingdom to cluster with several actual medieval Threads, including the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Another example is so-called "Slaver Antilles", which Einstein states "is a region so dirty and cynical, torn asunder by gang warfare, that magic is crushed by the sheer and utter lack of hope in the Thread, an extreme version of Observer Effect, indeed."
Einstein-FFFFE00A went on to cite many other unusual effects in zero magic Threads, such as the time-travel effects of "Unbroken" Laos and the dangerous groupthink capabilities of the infamous Magic Kingdom (a strange dystopian Disney-dominated Thread). “Admittedly, the Disney information is very preliminary but seems to fit the hypothesis.”
Dr. Edgar Palmer of the Penn State Department of Esoteric Studies said, "The fact that so many Threads have a non-zero Kellner rating, though usually a low one, despite the higher energy drag, is evidence that the pre-Event world had a non-zero Kellner rating, contrary to the beliefs of those in the few zero-magic Threads."
Dr. Palmer speculated that De Gaulle France's generally positive agricultural situation is the direct result of a "reverse Mesmer effect", where a lower-than-normal Kellner rating provided the energy needed in other areas. (So-called "Mesmer Paris" is infamous for a situation where F. Anton Mesmer's actions to increase the Thread's Kellner rating used so much energy that the Thread became "vampiric", attempting to draw energy from visitors to the Thread.)
The report agrees with Dr. Palmer, and also speculates that Fascist Croatia has managed to produce crops despite agricultural mismanagement by its government for similar reasons.
It is agreed by both Penn State and Berkeley that more study of these zero magic threads is in order but that funding is hard to come by. “Sadly, we find that with issues like Apophis in New Orleans and recent magic level discoveries in Boston that these results do not draw as much attention” said Einstein-FFFFE00A.
