At 09:30 pm 23-10-04 -0500, you wrote:
>There are some interesting video of tornados
>that show an occasional visible burst of flame
>within the vortex. I had first thought the flash
>came from contact with electric power lines but
>a closer view showed no power lines in the path
>of the tornado. Could this flame by caused by
>hydrogen combustion ? Richard
Absolutely Richard. The trouble with anomalous observations
of that kind is that they don't fit into the scientific canon
and they are ignored until they become coercive. They will
therefore be explained away. People will "know" that the flame
came from some mundane source of flammable material such a gas
canisters exploding, or the like. With ephemeral phenomena such
as tornadoes and earthquakes it is very difficult to produce
the scientific evidence that high priests demand. These phenomena
are not repeatable at will because they are not under man's
control. Until hydrogen can be generated by lightning in the
lab the scientific establishment will not believe it. Quite apart
from anything else it means that in the academic race of snakes
and ladders they will have fallen down a snake which takes them
back, virtually to the beginning of the board. Imagine you were
dumped in the middle of China. You would have to learn a new
language, a new form of writing, etc. etc. - not an easy thing
to do when you are over the hill, eh!
It's the stones falling from heaven all over again I'm afraid.
You have to admit that the idea of hydrogen being created ab
initio is the stuff of science fiction. If I hadn't come on
the possibility by a completely different route, I certainly
wouldn't believe it.
It's appropriate to give a quote from Bill Beaty's brilliant
website.
===================================================
WEIRD SCIENCE VERSUS REVOLUTIONARY SCIENCE
---------------------------------------------------
While it's true that at least 99% of fringe science
announcements are just as bogus as they seem, we
cannot dismiss every one of them without any
investigation. If we do, then we'll certainly take
our place among the ranks of scoffers who dismissed
(or even blocked) a large number of major scientific
discoveries through history. Beware! Many
apparently-sane discoveries such as powered flight
and drifting continents appear normal and
acceptable to us only because we have such powerful
HINDsight. These same advancements seemed obviously
wrong during the times they were first discovered.
In science, pursuing revolutionary advancements
can be like searching for diamonds hidden in sewage.
It's a shame that the realms of questionable ideas
contain "diamonds" of great value. It makes judging
crazy theories much more difficult. If crazy
discoveries were *always* bogus, then we'd have good
reason to automatically reject them. However, since
the "diamonds" exist, we must never automatically
discard ideas and observations which seem appear to
be part of the "sewage." Sometimes the "obvious"
craziness turns out to be a genuine cutting edge
discovery.
====================================================
Cheers
Grimer
