[Sent directly by accident!]
I wrote:
When something like this happens normally, it is a mistake, not a
deliberate effort at fraud. This would be a very dangerous mistake.
I mean that when a wire which is supposed to be dead actually carries
current, that is dangerous. That sort of thing happens all the time.
That is why people use power meters: to be sure that hot wires are hot,
and wires that are supposed to be off are fully off, and that wires
overall do not supply too much power or not enough. The people at
ELFORSK who endorsed this study know all there is to know about
measuring power.
People have been making stupid mistakes with electricity since 1878.
Every conceivable combination and permutation of mistakes with electric
power has to be detected by a power meter. Otherwise the meter will fail
and someone will be electrocuted. Nowadays there would be lawsuits up
the wazoo. It is not possible that Rossi has discovered something new
that millions of electricians did not accidentally discover in the last
135 years.
The notion that power meters cannot detect common mistakes such as a
live wire which is supposed to be dead is similar to the latest claim
made by Kirk Shanahan at Forbes. He says that IR cameras cannot measure
temperature reliably and that "no scientist" would trust one. He says he
does not believe the seven researchers actually compared the temperature
shown on the IR camera to a thermocouple, and he will not believe that
until they show the complete record of the thermocopule readings for the
entire run. A statement by them that the thermocouple agreed to within
2°C is not good enough for him.
Apparently, it has never occurred to him that millions of people use IR
cameras to measure temperatures worldwide, and IR cameras are
manufactured specifically for this purpose -- and for no other purpose
-- so it is likely they work according to the manufacturers'
specifications. It is not likely that Kirk Shanahan alone, in all the
world, has discovered that this particular instrument does not work, and
that millions of engineers and scientists worldwide failed to notice
that fact.
- Jed
