From: Eric Walker … What led people to accept such a low bar for evidence? Why are a few holdouts still so enamored of Rossi? This stuff may be old hat to people who have been watching this field for years, but it's still interesting to me. And also, when you've invested a lot of time in following a story, it's still nice to know what actually happened.
Eric, There is a good Wiki article explaining Rossi’s conduct… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathological_lying Where it is reported that a percentage of this type of afflicted individual fully believes that their false pronouncements are literally true. The epidemiology indicates that there is an association with high-functional ADHD, which seems to fit ARs obsessiveness and skill level. He has charisma, energy, solid skills and extreme self-confidence – such that the combination of all of this is very convincing to his apostles. Plus, in LENR we have a field where there have been successes in prior experiments going back 27 years, using similar parameters in metal hydrides, and it is very likely that from time to time, Rossi actually saw true energy gain but could not reproduce this gain on demand. He probably believed, and there is adequate basis for it in other fields, that he could overcome the past reliability problem by going to a larger form factor. He will probably go to his grave believing that he solved the problems of LENR and that his work was honest, misunderstood, and scientifically important.
