Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Jones. As you observed, the
video shows the same attitude toward cold fusion that has played out
in the US and in most other countries. You attempt to explain this
situation below, but I suggest you miss some important features of the
problem. Unfortunately, a full discussion and understanding of why and
how cold fusion is rejected requires the forbidden subject of politics
to be discussed. Politics is behind the rejection of CF just as it
is behind support for hot fusion and the NIF. Political decisions
control what is done in science because politics determines who gets
money and who makes money. Only occasionally do the great
discoveries, usually by individuals who are initially rejected, modify
the political thinking and force a change. CF is in the process of
doing this, but meanwhile the system is crashing because of poor
political choices made in the past that benefited certain very
powerful people and companies at the time. Meanwhile the completely
ignorant general population fights over issues that have no relevance
to the course of events, such as to whether socialism is being
applied. In short, the so called political debate is a smoke screen
to allow the real decisions to be made without interference.
Unfortunately, this forum is not interested in this subject, so I will
stop.
Ed
On Jul 8, 2009, at 10:06 AM, Jones Beene wrote:
Steve Krivit put up a provocative and insightful video on YouTube
that has gone almost unnoticed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bujrxqwRwc0&feature=channel_page
It centers on the Frascatti results, and the internal political
workings and machinations, related to LENR in Italy.
A similar situation was probably going on here in the USA, behind
the scenes.
The take-way message for me was the brief blip at the end – where
the producer of the piece is trying desperately to make sense of the
whole thing.
He come to the almost the identical conclusions that many of us have
come to, over the years. My first post on it was 15 years ago.
It all goes back to the politics of uranium, and particularly
depleted U as a disruptive fuel source which would render as
worthless a large infrastructure related to enriching U (with the
military implications); then there is the related issue of
proliferation; and finally there is the transfer of “expertise” from
one entrenched group and the loss of prestige (and of high paying
jobs) for the keepers of the faith in hot fusion and enrichment, to
a the group of raggedy outsiders. We as a nation do not want
individual (or low lever) control over energy resources.
That entrenched group of about a quarter million mostly PhDs and top-
notch brain power has failed us miserably the past five decades, and
wasted billions of R&D dollars on dead-end programs that almost any
grad student today can see has zero chance of financial viability. I
get sick to my stomach watching the Major Network and Smiling
Politician back-slapping adulation over such incredible boondoggles
as the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National
Lab. It is almost criminal in the sense that it CANNOT ever be
financially viable.
Thinking small. This is almost anti-American. If we cannot Super-
Size it, then it can’t be good for Joe the Plumber.
The final minute of this video is most thought provoking. It brings
back flashes of the Spanish Inquisition, and other instances where
an overwhelming but misguided majority opinion can easily quash the
minority (and correct) opinion. Fortunately the torture devices are
no longer physical. OTOH perhaps burning at the stake is preferable
in some ways. At least its all over quickly.
Jones
