One would think that baseless character assassination of executives at The Hanso Foundation might be enough for the enemies of social and scientific progress. But the sudden wave of criticism aimed at the Foundation has been getting seriously bizarre.

We've been hearing some reports that a recent defacement of The Hanso Foundation website included a map purporting to be a travel itinerary for Alvar Hanso himself. Put aside the laughable allegation that he hasn't been seen since 2002. Some of the paranoid online conspiracy theorists actually have gone so far as to suggest that Alvar Hanso never existed at all, or is merely a clone of some kind, or even (we're not making this one up) that he traveled backward in time from October 2001 to January 2001.

That's what we seem to be up against. Smearing the leaders of The Hanso Foundation is shameful enough, given how much the Foundation has done. But now we're faced with people who have a tenuous hold on reality as well.