At 06:01 PM 10/29/2009, Jed Rothwell wrote:
Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote:
As Bob Dylan wrote, if you ain't got nothin, you got nothin to
lose. On the other hand, if the bucks start pouring in the door,
hey, an attorney should get some. How likely is that? I can see the headlines:
Cold Fusion Fad Hits High Schools, Physicists Hysterical
Sales of LDA Cold Fusion Kits Skyrockets after American Physical
Society Issues Press Release: It's Impossible!
That's funny, but this is no laughing matter.
We should cry? Er, *seriously*, Jed, the establishment position on
cold fusion will look ludicrous in a few years. So we might as well
start laughing now. You know, when I was struggling with the Wiki
cabal, the hardest thing I had to deal with was statements by cold
fusion about how cold fusion was rejected by the mainstream.
Was it? There is no "mainstream," really, someone who is asleep has
no opinions at all, and the latest event that could be considered a
monitor of mainstream opinion, even though defective, was the 2004
DoE review. Which came damn hear to deciding by a majority that
excess heat was real. And of those opining that way, two-thirds
considered it likely to be nuclear. Sure, the half that didn't
believe in excess heat sure won't going to consider the missing
excess heat nuclear! So, the universally recommended research wasn't
funded. That's political. That's not science.
Yes, absolutely, I know how strong opinions are among some who should
know better. But they don't, and those who do decide to take a look
at the evidence are flipping to acceptance. Duncan managed to survive, so far.
There has been and continues to be serious, prolonged opposition
to cold fusion. Many powerful people such as Robert Park have gone
to great lengths to prevent research.
He's old and will be gone soon. His fanatic opposition hasn't escaped
notice. And he can't prevent research, he can just prevent government
funding and try to influence institutions, and, believe me, those
tactics are going to start backfiring. I fully understand the
difficulties you face, I'm not downplaying them.
They have done unethical things such as destroying people's
reputations in the mass media, and firing scientists who published
positive results or tried to organize or attend conferences. They
have destroyed people's lives, happiness and marriages. I advise
you not to play games with such people. Do nothing that will give
them the opportunity to get you in trouble.
I'm in so much trouble already, what are they going to do? Put me out
of my misery? That's a bad thing? You know, Jed, you never know what
side of things is better until the book is written and closed. I'm
not about to be intimidated by a hobgoblin. If there is a serious
conspiracy to suppress even a looney-tune like me, that can actually
manage that level of oppression, we have worse things to worry about
than cold fusion or not cold fusion. Why bother, indeed? I'm not
playing games with anyone, I'm not going to go out of my way to
taunt, say, Park. But if I'm going to modify my behavior out of fear,
I'm going to insist on some proof that the power of these people is
real. They have power in certain areas. Not everywhere.
And whatever I do will be thoroughly documented and public. It
already is, really, except for minor details. If I were to disappear,
someone else could do what I'm doing, and perhaps take some
additional precautions.
But I don't expect anything, really. Until, perhaps, it's too late,
and for that reason, I *still* don't expect anything. They aren't
stupid. Usually!
They probably do not have much power to hurt a person who is outside
the academic establishment and not employed by a university or
corporation. But I expect they will try, and you may be more
vulnerable than you think to nuisance lawsuits, harassment,
character assassination, Internet rumors and so on. These people are
creative and they will stop at nothing. They sincerely believe that
cold fusion is "pathological science" worse than Creationism, and
that it is lunacy and criminal fraud, and that allowing any research
will "discredit" science.
Cool. A nuisance lawsuit would be the best publicity I could get. Do
you imagine that I'd be quiet about it? Who, pray tell, would be so
foolish? Sure, there are mistakes I could make that would open doors
for someone. Let's say, I'll try not to do that. But what I'm doing
isn't a spider, it's a starfish, if you know Branfman's metaphor.
Right now, it's mostly just me, myself, and I, and a few friends
advising, for which I'm grateful. Cut me up, and there will be two of
me, or more, not one dead spider.
I do not believe in conspiracy theories but I know for a fact that
harassment is widespread, because I know the victims from the 1990s.
More recently, people such as Robert Duncan told me making favorable
remarks in public about cold fusion is like poking a hornet's nest.
Yes. I'm sure. Brave man. But, I notice, he's not dead yet, seems to
still have his job. My guess is that some very serious efforts were
made to change that. The "pseudoscience" bogeyman worked twenty years
ago, but ... I have a suspicion that it is starting to backfire on
those who pull out that old canard.
And if I'm wrong, well, I'd suggest we are better off believing that
I'm right, and that we stop acting like we are some repressed cult.
Jed, among scientists, by which I mean among those who know the
field, there isn't any doubt about cold fusion. Okay, nobody knows
what it is and maybe it's not fusion. But LENR is real, you won, Jed,
your work paid off, start enjoying the turnaround.
I myself have not been the target of any serious harassment. This is
because powerful people who have it in for the research, such as
Park, never bother me. They consider me an unimportant lunatic.
That's what they tell me. I am glad they feel that way!
It's useful, isn't it? But if you try to convince those people, you
really *would* be a lunatic! One of the stupidest things among the
stupid things I regularly do is to try to convince people of
something when they don't want to hear it. Truth does not matter, the
resistance is coming from natural ego-defenses. And the more you try
to strip someone of those defenses, the harder they will resist. As
they should, don't you agree?
You cannot drag that horse to water. So ... just drink some water
where the horse can see you. Enjoy it, visibly. Besides, Jed, crazy
people have more fun. It's not worth being crazy if it's not fun!
Some of their small beer followers have bothered me, mainly in petty
ways such as banning me from Wikipedia. (Any self-respecting person
qualified to write about cold fusion will be banned from Wikipedia
sooner or later.)
This time. It might change. There is a systemic problem at Wikipedia,
it's not about cold fusion, it's about the whole process of dealing
with conflict, and everyone familiar with Wikipedia is aware of the
problem, it's just that they don't know how to fix it and they refuse
to be led to water. Give them time, they get thirsty enough, they'll
start to drink. The water is available.
Actually, I have had just about as much trouble from cold fusion
researchers who oppose LENR-CANR.org as from opponents. Why they do
not simply ignore the site I do not know, but several have tried to
sabotage it. As I mentioned here, one even threatened lawsuits and
it turned out he meant it. Another included me as a co-defendant in
a lawsuit against Mallove, but the judge dismissed it. There sure
are many flaky people associated with this field! The skeptics are
right about that. You can see why people get a bad impression.
Yes, I see, all too well. However, if I expect people to be tolerant
of me, I damn well better be tolerant of them. That doesn't mean
lying down and letting them screw me over, but it does mean not
blaming them for being crazy. It takes all kinds. Maybe it's a good
thing that the CF community didn't toss Vysotskii out on his ear,
because it's just possible the community would have been making the
same mistake with him that the physicists largely made in 1989-1990.
It is weird that I've not heard of one single attempt to replicate
his work, yet the implications are tremendous, and, if he's right,
practical applications of great value are almost immediate.
So.... when I get this codep thing going, and maybe an Arata-type
cell, I might need to look up our Russian friend to get some details.
I always wanted to build a Mossbauer spectrograph, anyway. Or maybe
someone else will beat me too it. I'd be cheering!
